Visualising the Mediterranean: Unlearning and Imagining Through Contemporary Art

By Amanda Tavares

Visualising the Mediterranean: Unlearning and Imagining through Contemporary Art explores the paradoxes and potentialities of the Mediterranean Sea as a geographic, historical, poetic and conceptual space. Through in-depth readings of eight contemporary art projects by women artists, the book challenges monolithic representations of the sea and calls into question the political structures they epitomise. In doing so, it offers insightful critiques of imperialism through the prisms of relationality, image-making and knowledge production, highlighting art as a key arena in the construction and deconstruction of collective imaginaries.

Divided into four chapters, *Visualising the Mediterranean *looks into conceptual notions such as borders, citizenship, memory and traces to put forward an interdependent theoretical framework based on the writings of douard Glissant and Ariella A sha Azoulay. Focusing on the interdisciplinary, transcultural and multimedia approaches employed by the selected artists, as well as on the powers of historical consciousness and imagination, the book urges us to problematise 'universal' categories, reactivate modes of resistance, and see the sea as a source of both violence and hope.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1805968718
• ISBN13: 9781805968719
• Release Date: December 2026
• Publisher: Liverpool University Press
• Length: 224 Pages