Ana Adamovic, Marwa Arsanios, Bank of No, Sofia Bempeza, Banu Cennetoglu, Marianna Christofides, Tom Dale, Haris Epaminonda, Hackitectura, Lia Haraki, Timo Herbst & Marcus Nebe, Elizabeth Hoak-Doering, Eleni Kamma, Mahmoud Khaled, Zissis Kotionis, Mona Marzouk, Panayiotis Michael, Christodoulos Panayiotou, Nira Pereg, Polys Peslikas, Alexandros Pissourios, Ran Slavin, Paola Yacoub

Curated by Michael Arzt (HALLE 14) & Yiannis Toumazis (NiMAC)

For more than five years the spectre of crisis has been haunting Europe. It began as a banking crisis, grew into anational debt crisis and caused economic and government crises - and not only in Greece, Spain and Cyprus. For the countries of Northern Europe, these states are entirely to blame for their accumulated debt. The tough austerity measures are deemed not only necessary, but also fair and justifiable. In the South, these austerity measures -enforced despite any internal opposition-- are seen as taking away any autonomy in the crisis and robbing generations of their future. Lately, with the continuous migration movements towards the middle countries of Europe and the United Kingdom's decision for Brexit, the inner centrifugal forces of the European Unification became apparent.

The resulting political and social imbalances threaten both the positive and negative achievements of a united Europe. New border fence systems are popping up across Europe. Right-wing, populist and anti-political movements in Europe and Germany determine the talk of the day. Since time immemorial, Terra Mediterranea, the sea enclosed by southern Europe, southwest Asia and northern Africa, has been a "liquid continent" for the transfer of people, culture and ideas -both in times of peace and war- and is not suitable as a moat for a fortress of prosperity. The south appears as Europe's irrational underbelly that brings disorder, border breaching, colonial phantoms, and an uncanny claim to a common, mythically glorious, ancient past. Long disparaged by the West as an oriental lair of corruption and backwardness, it has moved inevitably into the focus ofpolitical world events. Perhaps, this connection shows the way out of the crisis: a Mediterranean Union as an extension of the EU, one that ends the decolonization and offers youth a way out of stagnation, poverty, authoritarianism and violence.

The exhibition focuses on art's unifying potential as an intellectual mediator and gathers 23 artists from 14 countries in order to bring up as many perspectives as possible -from political, critical and poetic stances- during this turbulent phase and its historic origins. As »the possible that includes the things to come«, it opens up horizons of rich and contradictory historical and cultural traditions. »Terra Mediterranea: In Action« questions existing stereotypes, fixed thoughts and ideas on financial issues, security and identity and gives the opportunity to unheard, resisting and activist voices to be heard.