The Mediterranean Institute, University of Malta and Valletta 2018 are pleased to announce their forthcoming performance collaboration titled Operation Sunken Sea: Relocating the Mediterranean, performed by visual artist Heba Y. Amin.
This is an exciting collaboration that approaches nuanced and critical visions of the Mediterranean region through a performance framework. The event will take place on Friday 25 May at 19:30 at the St Elmo Examination Centre in Valletta. Entrance is free and open to the public.
This is an exciting collaboration that approaches nuanced and critical visions of the Mediterranean region through a performance framework. The event will take place on Friday 25 May at 19:30 at the St Elmo Examination Centre in Valletta. Entrance is free and open to the public.
Invested in the power of technology to generate a new future for humankind, ‘Operation Sunken Sea’ initiates a large-scale infrastructural intervention unparalleled in scale. A new era of human progress will be initiated through the draining and rerouting of the Mediterranean Sea to converge Africa and Europe into one supercontinent. The operation promises to bring an end to terrorism and the migration crisis, provide employment and energy alternatives and confront the rise of fascism, all of which pose profound existential threats to our future. The project instills a fervent movement towards technocracy which takes a proactive stance towards the reparation of Africa and the Middle East by relocating the Mediterranean Sea within the continent.
Expanding upon early twentieth century techno-utopian visions, ‘Operation Sunken Sea’ investigates the abundance to be acquired from the significant transformation of territorial constructs. It responds to the contemporary moment of political uncertainty in Europe, the unrest and collapse of nation-states in the Middle East, the neo-liberal failure of globalisation in Africa by shifting the paradigm in a time of neo-fascist necropolitics. The operation instigates enterprise, invention and ingenuity with a new vision for Africa and the Middle East. It pinpoints what could be attained by and for those most affected in the last century by the wars waged for oil, resources and power.
Heba Y. Amin is an Egyptian visual artist, researcher and lecturer. She teaches at Bard College Berlin, is a doctorate fellow in art history at Freie Universität and the co-founder of the Black Athena Collective. Furthermore, she is the curator of visual art for the MIZNA journal (US), and curator for the biennial residency programme DEFAULT with Random Association (IT). Furthermore, Amin is also one of the artists behind the subversive graffiti action on the set of the television series 'Homeland' which received worldwide media attention.
Amin’s work is embedded in extensive research and a studio practice that looks at the convergence of politics, technology, and urbanism. Working with various media, her work critiques historiographies situated in contested territories. She is particularly interested in tactics of subversion and techniques used to undermine systems as well as topics surrounding critical spatial practice. Amin has an extensive repertoire in public speaking and has published several works. She lives and works in Berlin.