MondialCult 2025 

From September 29 to October 1, the city of Barcelona will be hosting MondialCult 2025, the world’s largest conference on cultural policy. The European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed) and the Anna Lindh Foundation (ALF) are taking part through several events. 

As part of this event, the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed) and the Anna Lindh Foundation (ALF) will be bringing in young Mediterranean speakers and holdings debates on culture as a driver of transformation and dialogue. 

The first proposal focuses on youth creativity, with a day of literature and artistic creation featuring young people from several Mediterranean countries, closing the literary competition A Sea of Words 2025, and the second is a day of debates on the protection of Mediterranean cultural heritage in times of crisis linked to the exhibition “A Sea of Heritage: Dialogue, diversity and fragility.”

A Sea of Words 2025
The literary competition A Sea of Words, promoted by the IEMed and the FAL since 2008, providesa space where young people from the Euro-Mediterranean region can express themselves through literary creation. The 2025 edition invited young people to imagine futures for the Mediterranean within a context of armed conflict, inequality, climate emergency and forced migration. 

The competition’s closing ceremony, open to the public in the Moragues Room of the El Born Cultural and Memory Center, will be taking place on Monday, September 29, with the participation of the ten finalists from different countries. In addition to the awards ceremony, the event includes an intergenerational dialogue with writers Maram al-Masri (Syria),  Cristina Rivas (journalist and writer) and Karima Ziali (philosopher and writer), as well as a concert with L’Beel, an emerging artist from the Catalan capital who blends pop with North African musical traditions.


Culture, heritage and crisis in the Mediterranean
On Tuesday, September 30, the IEMed and the FAL, with the support of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for the Middle East, North Africa, and the Gulf (DG-MENA), have organized the high-level seminar “Culture, heritage and crisis in the Mediterranean: collective action for peace and sustainability.” The event will be taking place at the Institut d’Estudis Catalans, where one can see the IEMed exhibition “A Sea of Heritage: Fragility, diversity and dialogue.” 

International experts, institutional representatives, civil society and scholars will be reflecting upon the risks threatening Mediterranean cultural heritage—from climate change and political instability to the loss of intergenerational transmission—and on the opportunities offered by heritage as a tool for dialogue, cooperation and peacebuilding. 

The day of events will be officially beginning at 9:30 a.m., and will include participation by Mohamed Ould Amar, Director General of the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO).

Culture and youth: pillars of the Mediterranean’s future
With these two initiatives, the IEMed and the FAL are strengthening their commitment to culture as a tool for cohesion, dialogue and sustainable development. From youth creativity to heritage protection, the events will connect with the vision of MONDIACULT 2025, which places culture at the heart of the social and political transformations necessary to create more just, inclusive and resilient societies.

Further information