When I arrived in Florence one of my very first purposes was to avoid Italian-German stereotypes and not walk on these exhausted paths. Freeing Italy from being the German lemon garden, I wanted to consider the other Italian neighborhoods – which is above all the water of the Mediterranean. At least since colonial politics the Mediterranean region was not considered any more as an area of culture and history, but as a medium of dissociation from „conflict zones“ on the other shore. How can it be accepted in the 21 century that countries like Morocco or Tunisia or Algeria seem to be „far away“ from Europe – although from Tunisia to Italy it is just 80 km? How can it be accepted that more than 90.000 human lives were drowning in this water? As most of the southern Mediterranean countries did not succeed in their struggle for democracy, the purpose of forgetting the knowledge of historical layers can be shared between the North and the South. Why are the colonial ties still so strong, that Italy is only concerned with Libya and France with most of the other countries? How can artists dig this history, how can they construct bridges and friendships? Since 2007 we invited guest artists from Mediterranean countries between Tirana and Tanger to live in the Villa for 2,3 months. Our annual program for this never changed since 2007: 7000,- a year (travels and visa included). In the first years we were not allowed to publish these international guests on our homepage, because it would question the division between domestic and international culture politics in Germany. (Villa Romana in Italy is considered as part of domestic politics !!!)You all experience the dissociated realities around the Mediterranean from different perspectives – in some cases you may not even speak with your colleague in the neighborhood because it means speaking with a state enemy. Can you talk about your experiences and your artistic approaches in and with the Mediterranean region?