The Forgotten Vase

The skies weep, the sea howls.
Dreams die overseas.
The waves seal their tomb.
Europe loses its nails.

Lloran los cielos, aúlla el mar.
Mueren los sueños en ultramar.
Las olas sellan su tumba.
Europa pierde las uñas. 

Nana del Mediterraneo

Dimensions:  9.5"H x 5"W x 4.5"D (24cm H x  14.5cm W x  13cm 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 —
The Forgotten Vase 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.

The Forgotten Vase is an interpretation of that underwater world, one that was once alive and colorful, and is now still. Sediment that holds, without ceremony, what the world above refuses to acknowledge. It is a meditation on what disappears when we choose not to look. On the life systems that collapse in silence. On the dreams that sink without a name.

— 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