The Scalesi Project launched at the Mediterranean Institute

On Thursday 4 December, the Mediterranean Institute, together with the Sicilian Chair for Intercultural Dialogue within the Faculté des Arts, Lettres et Humanités at the Université de la Manouba, and the Department of Italian Studies at the Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3, launched The Scalesi Project: Legacies of a Mediterranean Voice.

Inspired by the work of the Tunisian-Maltese-Sicilian poet and cultural critic Mario Scalesi, the Scalesi Project is a long-term, public-facing, transmedial and cross-disciplinary initiative that will explore Scalesi’s legacy and introduce his oeuvre to wider readerships. It will also serve as an open platform for collaboration and exchange through multilingual scholarship, with a particular focus on displacement, public memory, and intercultural dialogue across the central Mediterranean.

The event was addressed by the Rector of the Université de la Manouba, Professor Ameur Cherif; Professor Alfonso Campisi, President of the Chaire Sicile pour le dialogue des cultures et civilisations at the Université de la Manouba; Professor Norbert Bugeja of the Department of English and Director of the Mediterranean Institute at the University of Malta; and Scalesi specialist Professor Flaviano Pisanelli from the Department of Italian Studies at the Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3. The panel introduced seminar participants to the work of Mario Scalesi and discussed key aspects of his contribution to a distinct Mediterranean modernism, as well as to francophone literature in the Maghreb and beyond.

The launch featured readings of Scalesi’s poetry in the original French, alongside Prof. Norbert Bugeja’s Maltese translations. Following the event, Professor Campisi personally presented Prof. Bugeja with a portrait of Mario Scalesi, painted by renowned artist Gerald di Giovanni. Upcoming events and activities under the Scalesi Project will remain free of charge and open to the public, students, researchers, and all those with an interest in Mario Scalesi’s work and/or the histories of migration and displacement in the central Mediterranean.

(Photo credits: Gerald Di Giovanni, 'Portrait of Mario Scalesi')