On 26 November 2024, in the framework of a solemn ceremony held at the Palau de la Generalitat, the French-Lebanese writer Amin Maalouf was awarded the 36th Catalonia International Prize.

On this occasion, tribute was paid to Amin Maalouf as a key figure in our time, “a legacy to understand the contemporary world and find a bridge between cultures in difficult times.” Indeed, the entirety of Maalouf’s work is part of this gesture of openness, listening and transmission between peoples, languages and memories. The writer, born in Beirut and a member of the Académie française, has always striven to demolish walls of identity in order to better draw the lines of a myth of the bridge, this fragile and vital dream of uniting differences without dissolving them.

In his acceptance speech, Maalouf offered a powerful meditation on the paradoxes of our time: humanity has never had so many tools to improve its condition and yet it remains incapable of living in peace. Identity conflicts, withdrawals, and fears corrode our common future. “There is at least one area in which our species seems to have reached its threshold of collective incompetence,” he states gravely: that of coexistence.

Maalouf thus reawakens the old myth of a Mediterranean crossroads − not a land of divisions, but an area of hospitality and hope, inviting all people to think about their place in the world. This bridge, yet to be built, thus becomes not only an achievable goal, but above all a collective duty towards future generations.

This message is in keeping with the spirit of Quaderns de la Mediterrània, which dedicates this edition to the founding myths of the Mediterranean as tools of thought for our present. Through stories, symbols and shared figures, the journal aims to revive an imaginary of the bond, in the face of identity withdrawals. Because the Mediterranean is not just a past that must be preserved, but a myth that must be reinvented: a common horizon based on diversity, dialogue and solidarity.