23 Oct 2012

United States of Europe at Motorenhalle. Project Centre Dresden

Dresden, October 2012 – How is European identity doing? Does Mr O'Keeffe in Ireland feel more or less European than Mrs Stylianou in Cyprus? And how European do you feel? The artistic project United States of Europe (U.S.E) deals with these questions in the context of a travelling exhibition through ten European countries. From October 26 until November 21, 2012 the exhibition will be presented at Motorenhalle in Dresden.

„United States of Europe' (U.S.E), is a European collaboration, coordinated by the Goethe-Institut Paris and nine associated partners. Between November 2011 and Mai 2013 the exhibition will be presented in public spaces, galleries and museums in Poland, Finland, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Portugal, Cyprus, Germany, France, Ireland and Belgium, till spring 2013. The project is not propaganda for a federal Europe but it aims to create commitment in the Europe we live in, and to function as a communication platform for people living in Europe. The exhibition offers a lot of different interpretations on European identity through diverse disciplines and angles.

U.S.E aims to create debate and commitment in the Europe we live in, and offers assorted visual dimensions on European identity through diverse disciplines and angles. U.S.E consists of four elements: In the exhibition, art works (videos, photos, installations) are confronted with interviews from a sociological study. A multimedia laboratory – being an artwork in itself – combines sociology (interviews) with an artistic dimension and constitutes the heart of the exhibition. A complementary series of debates discusses and reflects upon political, social and cultural aspects of Europe.

The artistic team embodies the main characteristic that is at the core of U.S.E: diversity. Three curators, Ryszard W. Kluszczyński (Poland), Anna Bitkina (Russia), Sinziana Ravini (Sweden/France), have each selected a group of artists. The chosen artists have international and multicultural backgrounds and they all deal with identity questions. U.S.E presents works of Luchezar Boyadjiev (Bulgaria), Anna Konik (Poland), Gerda Lampalzer (Austria), Maria Lusitano Santos (Portugal), Deimantas Narkevicius (Lithuania), Artur Zmijewski (Poland), Jean-Charles Hue (France), Kaarina Kaikkonen (Finland), REINIGUNGSGESELLSCHAFT (artist duo, Germany), Tanja Muravskaja (Estonia), Kennedy Browne (artist duo, Ireland), Apostolis Polymeris (Belgium), Kyriaki Costa (Cyprus), and Anu Pennanen (Finland). The multimedia artist Jānis Garančs (Latvia) created the interactive laboratory. It is a hybrid communication platform for Europeans that encourages visitors to exchange and interact in real time.

The sociological core team consists of Prof. Andrzej Piotrowski, Dr Tomasz Ferenc (University of Lødz) and Dr Lyudmila Nurse (Oxford XXI, UK). Ten local sociologist teams have conducted five interviews in each participating country. Johanna Suo (Sweden/France/UK) has initiated the project and created the exhibition concept.

Associated partners: the University of Łódź, Poland; the Lasipalatsi Film and Media Centre, Finland; The Red House, Bulgaria; the Centre of Culture and Art Initiatives, Lithuania; Transforma, Portugal; The Pharos Arts Foundation, Cyprus; AIDA, Belgium; L'art au quotidien, France and Cork Vision Centre, Ireland.

The project is kindly supported by the City of Dresden, Kulturstiftung Dresden der Dresdner Bank, Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen, Leopold-Mayer Foundation, Volfoni, mobilconcept.