Forgotten I

As we are born, we learn to be children of time,
just as seashells learn to belong to the shore.

Nacemos y aprendemos a ser hijos del tiempo,
Así como los caracoles aprenden a ser de las orillas. 313

Dimensions:  11" H x 17" W x 15" D (28cm H x 43cm W x 38cm D)

Materials: Clay, glaze, oxides

Year: 2026
Price: Upon request

Giving back: 10% of my net proceeds from this piece will be donated to a nonprofit aligned with the social issue behind the work: Open Arms 

The Truth Behind:

— This Piece —
Forgotten I is part of The Unnamed, a series of sculptures confronting the human cost of the Mediterranean migration crisis, the individual lives, the unnamed bodies, the unfinished dreams, and the silence that follows.

Forgotten I represents a trace of human existence absorbed into the ocean floor, already embedded within the seabed itself. Merged with inert rock, dead coral, and silence, the human and the underwater landscape become indistinguishable; they become one. What was once a person full of dreams and courage finds a new, forced destiny in an infinite symbiosis with the world that consumed them. Meanwhile, above the surface, life continues, unjust, too busy, too indifferent to look at what it has chosen to consider a disposable life.

At the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, thousands of bodies remain. Unclaimed. Unidentified. Unnamed. They did not disappear; they were forgotten, absorbed into the ocean floor as if they had never existed, as if their lives had never held weight or meaning.

— The Social Issue —
The Mediterranean Sea has always been a path of crossing. For centuries, it connected civilizations, cultures, and peoples. But for decades now, long before the cameras arrived, long before the statistics began, it has also been a cemetery.

Since 2014, the International Organization for Migration has recorded more than 72,000 deaths and disappearances on migration routes worldwide. But the dying did not begin in 2014. That is simply when the world began counting. Many shipwrecks happen with no survivors. Many bodies are never recovered. Many deaths simply go unrecorded, as they always have. The number is a minimum estimate of a reality that is, in truth, uncountable.

Why do people cross?

Migration across the Mediterranean is rarely a choice made lightly. People leave because of war, political persecution, economic collapse, and increasingly, climate-driven displacement, drought, land degradation, and environmental crisis that make entire regions uninhabitable. The journey is not a single crossing. It is a long, multi-stage process through multiple countries, often spanning months or years, moving through informal settlements and detention facilities.

How do they cross?

Most migrants rely on smuggling networks, not centralized criminal organizations, but fragmented systems of local and regional facilitators who coordinate transport and charge big amounts of money. These networks expand precisely when legal migration pathways are closed. The sea crossing itself is the most dangerous phase: overcrowded boats, no safety equipment, unreliable engines, and no guarantee of rescue. Survival depends on weather, distance, and chance.

What does Europe do?

The European Union has implemented a border externalization strategy that shifts migration management to third countries, primarily by funding and equipping the Libyan Coast Guard to intercept vessels before they reach European territory, as documented by Amnesty International. These operations result in the forced return of individuals to detention centers in Libya, where Human Rights Watch and UN agencies have reported crimes against humanity, including torture and slavery. Simultaneously, the imposition of legal and administrative restrictions on humanitarian rescue organizations, combined with the lack of safe and legal pathways, has turned the Mediterranean into a high-mortality route. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), these deaths are a predictable consequence of current EU migration policies and the ongoing criminalization of solidarity.

References, Further Reading & Sources:

Search and rescue in the Mediterranean – Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

Missing Migrants Project – International Organization for Migration (IOM)

2024 is Deadliest Year on Record for Migrants, New IOM Data Reveals  — International Organization for Migration (IOM)

Migrant Death and Disappearability at Sea: Mediterranean Necropolitics as a European Strategy of Migration Deterrence — Journal of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University

Mediterranean Situation – Data UNHCR

Migrant Smuggling Reports  – UNODC
https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/migrant-smuggling.html