Creative Mediterranean: a major project in Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Lebanon, Palestine and Tunisia to bring together artisans and designers, and innovation and tradition.
The Creative Mediterranean collection presented in Paris at the Maison&Objet fair is the result of two years of work by artisans and designers from seven Mediterranean countries – Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Lebanon, Palestine and Tunisia –, together with Unido, the United Nations agency for industrial development, and funded by the European Commission and Italian Cooperation. The main objective of the project is to create new employment opportunities by revitalising local artisanal and cultural traditions in order to produce more contemporary products with international appeal.
Resilience is the capacity to adapt to change, to transform difficulties into positive opportunities, and "resilience through creativity" is the guiding thread of the Creative Mediterranean project, coordinated by Italian designer Giulio Vinaccia. It involves seven countries in the southern Mediterranean in the development of fourteen clusters, meaning groups of creative industries: from Algerian and Lebanese jewellery manufacturing to Moroccan wood carving, Tunisian ceramics and Egyptian blown glass. Because creativity is an effective mechanism of resilience for facing situations of hardship such as those occurring in an area afflicted by the threat of terrorism – with all the political, social and economic repercussions this entails.
"The project has allowed thousands of businesses, artisans, young people, women and designers in Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine and Tunisia to transform their history, culture, passion, creativity and resilience into employment and income opportunities, but also into a form of redemption, by managing to overcome dramatic conflicts and obstacles," says Gerardo Patacconi, Director of Unido's agribusiness development department and head of the project for the development of clusters in cultural and creative industries in the southern Mediterranean area (Development of clusters in cultural and creative industries in the southern Mediterranean).
Starting from a mapping of the territories involved in the project, the most interesting productive districts, most representative of their cultural heritage, were identified, and the Creative Mediterranean brand was then created for the marketing of the products. In all the countries involved, design hubs are being established – genuine laboratories of experimentation and creativity in which tradition and digital culture coexist to create new contemporary designs with the soul of artisanal tradition.
Museums, libraries and cultural institutions are involved in a relaunch initiative that will last three years and which, at present, counts a team of thirty people. As this is a pilot project of the European Union, if it delivers the hoped-for results, it will be expanded. "It is a problem-solving exercise, meaning an analysis of the situation to find the best solutions and economic development strategies, which only at the end becomes a product," Vinaccia emphasises. "The work is more than anything else about breaking down cultural and political barriers."
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From the fourteen clusters, an annual turnover of 3,600 million euros is projected, equal to 0.2 per cent of the combined gross domestic product of the seven countries, of which 400 million in exports, amounting to 0.3 per cent of the total; 55 institutions are involved, including universities, cultural institutions, professional associations and government bodies; 19,300 small businesses are concerned, of which 12,500 are micro-enterprises accounting for 64 per cent of the total, 6,800 small and medium-sized enterprises accounting for 35 per cent, and 180 industrial or semi-industrial entities; 280,000 people are employed, of whom 56 per cent (155,000) work in the so-called 'informal sector', a term referring to the economy not structured by legal or contractual rules.