Pai Mar

The fine, oscillating line that separates the liquid medium from the dry medium can only be understood by looking at its map. Only by crossing this border can we conceive of a common identity. The sea is an extensive body which, enveloping the land, unites different cultures. From above, you can't tell the seas the countries or peoples that inhabit them apart. Pai Mar is that undefined territory, a collective memory in the making, marked by signs of identity and difference. The photographs were taken while I was a member of the APCM in Cape Verde, São Tomé, Ireland and Colombia as part of the project EU MSCA-RISE-777998 CONCHA (“The construction of early modern global Cities and oceanic networks in the Atlantic: An approach via Ocean’s Cultural Heritage”).