An artistic project sponsored by the NGO Sea-Watch aims to honor the memory of those who have died in the Mediterranean in the hope for a better future in Europe.
More than 38,000 migrants have lost their lives in their attempts to cross the Mediterranean since 2000. The project Mediterranean Faces (MEDFaces) aims to collect a single image for each of their faces, using art to memorialize those who have died in search of a better, safer, and more dignified life in Europe. The project is supported by the NGO Sea-Watch and is open to all.
Art to remember and raise awareness
"What we would like to express is: look at how many individuals that number represents. This is not just a photograph of a person wearing a lifejacket and standing and trembling in a lifeboat, or indeed of the many who did not even make it into the boat. This is an individual person, with dreams, hopes and fears," said Mediterranean Faces co-founder Yorgos Konstantinou, as reported by Sea-Watch.
The idea stemmed from an initiative in Catalonia called Stop Mare Mortum, whose objective was to raise awareness on the situation of refugees. The project allows anyone who wants to participate to use a creative method to portray a face, expressing joy, desperation, optimism or seriousness, to pay tribute to those who have died at sea.
"Pain and agony, but also the positive and beautiful sides of the Mediterranean Sea, as a place of coming together and as a place of joy - all of that should be looked at. We want to deal with murder by talking about life," Konstantinou said. The artworks will be displayed in shows to be freely organised by anyone interested.
Capturing the tragedy of deaths at sea
To promote the initiative, Sea-Watch has a face template available on its website to use for creating a design. Artwork can be submitted in 300-dpi resolution at the email address media@sea-watch.org and shared on social media with the hashtags #MEDfaces and #FaceReality.
The NGO also accepts requests via email to organise shows tied to the project. "Let us stand up for a better understanding of this tragedy, a tragedy that can not only be grasped by looking at numbers, but by looking in our hearts," said Sea-Watch regarding the project. "In this way, grief and hope, empathy and readiness to act can all stand side by side."