Mediterranean City: Dialogue among Cultures at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina
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Alexandria, 7 February 2005—The Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA) is organizing an international event entitled Mediterranean City: Dialogue among Cultures, taking place from 21 February to 3 March 2005.
The event aims to foster the dialogue among the Mediterranean cities through recapturing some of the unique flavor of the long histories of these cities, with special emphasis on past achievements and present challenges for these cities that have offered so much. The following 12 cities will be focused on: Alexandria, Athens, Barcelona, Beirut, Hydra, Istanbul, Genoa, Marseille, Naples, Rome, Tunis and Venice.
The event is comprised of three components, the main of which is the Public Policy Forum, which will bring together mayors, representatives of civil and business societies, as well as urban developers from the 12 major Mediterranean cities. Over the course of two days, they will discuss important issues related to the development of new policies for the Mediterranean region, in four respective panels.
The second activity within the event is the International Exhibition, which will provide a retrospective view, a critical glance at the present, and a futuristic vision for the Mediterranean city. Themes of the exhibition are political influences, trade links, religious, cultural, and scientific exchanges, and population movements.
The event will be marked by the launch of the Beautiful Book which traces the past, present and future of eight Mediterranean cities: Alexandria, Beirut, Barcelona, Genoa, Marseille, Naples, Tunis and Venice. It will show the different aspects of their shared socio-cultural heritage, their present lives, as well as future development and urban projects.
The opening ceremony will include speeches by Dr. Ismail Serageldin, Director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina; H.E. Abdel Salam El Mahgoub, Governor of Alexandria; H.E. Ambassador Antonio Badini, Italian Ambassador to Egypt; and Mr. Emmanuel Mbi, Director of the World Bank’s Country Office in Egypt. One of the highlights of the ceremony will be an operatic performance by the famous Italian tenor Vincenzo La Scola. La Scola’s repeated successes in the world’s most prestigious opera houses and concert halls has lead him to be one of today’s leading tenors.
The Med Cities project was financed by an Italian trust fund managed by the World Bank.
Visit the conference website for more details at http://www.bibalex.org/medcity