EUROPE STARTS HERE

EUROPE STARTS HERE
Van Eyck Open Studios, Maastricht, 2017

During the Open Studios, which where held from 9 till 11 March 2017, I presented a structure that mirrored the exact dimensions of the “Better Shelter,” a refugee tent designed in 2010 by the IKEA Foundation in collaboration with the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees). This structure, which was initially designed as a temporary housing solution for displaced persons, served as the focal point of the event. It provided the context for the reading performance titled “Europe Starts Here,” which took place every two hours. Stools for the audience were put randomly through the space. While the reading unfolded, the structure was gradually enclosed with flags, symbolizing a process of inclusion and exclusion. Those who chose to sit inside the structure were increasingly included, while those who chose to sit outside the tent were excluded from the performance.

“Europe Starts Here” is an artistic exploration of the spatial and cultural narratives that contribute to shaping the image and perception of Europe. Throughout history, Europe has often been defined through symbols, landmarks, and cultural achievements—such as the Acropolis in Athens—which are touted as key components of the ‘European identity’. But the question arises: for whom is this European identity really constructed? While the Acropolis and other historical sites are celebrated as symbols of Europe’s cultural heritage, they are also often used to reinforce the idea of a homogeneous European identity. Tourists, refugees, global shoppers, stateless persons, migrants and other adventurers, as travelers they arrive at the same borders and stopover in the same cities with an equal fascination for their destination, Europe, even though they are welcomed quite differently.

The performative lecture follows the reversed Grand Tour, moving through different places, historical developments, present-day realities, and pressing issues, examining how Europe addresses fundamental questions of identity, citizenship, culture, and history in the context of the arrival of large numbers of refugees. The main question that underlies this tour is whether the tourist and the heritage site, the refugee and the camp are not both a result of the same paradigm. Tourist and refugee, in most respects they seem to be opposites, but what do they have in common?

PARTICIPANTS
Abla elBahrawy (EG/NL)
Albergo Rosa (BE/NO)
​Alessandra Covini (IT), Anna Reutinger (US), Anneke Brassinga (NL), Bregje Hofstede (NL), Christine Bax (NL), Christine Verheyden (BE), Daan Gielis (BE), Damon Zucconi (US), Dear Hunter (NL/BE), Dimitrios Rentoumis (GR/NL), Eloise Sweetman (AU/NL), Fabio Roncato (IT), Fazed Grunion, Grace Schwindt (DE), Hannes Bernard & Guido Giglio (ZA/NL & BR/NL), Imran Channa (PK), Iván Martínez López (MX), Jessica Segall (US), Johanna Binder (AT), Ju Hyun Lee (KR), Julie van der Vaart (NL), Junsheng Zhou (CN), Katrin Kamrau (DE), Kristina Benjocki (RS/SI), Lena Bergendahl (SE), Lilian Kreutzberger (NL), Lucia Prancha (PT), Marco Balesteros (PT), Maria Pääkkönen (FI), Matthew C. Wilson (US), Meri Linna (FI), Mustafa Stitou (NL), Orr Menirom (IL), Paoletta Holst, Pieter van der Schaaf (NL), Radna Rumping (NL), Raewyn Martyn (NZ), Rosan Hollak (NL), Santiago F Mosteyrín (ES/NL), Simon Wald-Lasowski (FR/NL), Sol Archer (UK/NL), Tim Hollander (NL), Viktorija Rybakova (LT)

EUROPE STARTS HERE!
Publication, 2017

In the context of the artistic research project Grand Tour Europa I wrote an essay, titled: Europe Starts Here. It is printed as a brochure and there are still some copies availeble.

If you are interested in ordering a copy, please contact me at
mail (at) paolettaholst (dot) info. The price is 10 euro + shipping costs.

TEXT:
Paoletta Holst

GRAPHIC DESIGN:
Eun Lee

PRINTED AT:
Drukkerij Walters

EDITION:
200

EUROPE STARTS HERE
W-o-l-k-e, Brussels, 2017

“Abla elBahrawy, Michiel Huijben and Paoletta Holst share an interest for architecture in the broadest sense and their way of presenting work overlaps in the use of the lecture format in a performative and counterfactual way. In their practices research into constellations of history, materiality, and knowledge have the upper hand over the formal artistic experiment. The works presented are timely and unstable, questioning rather than stating, challenging rather than hermetic. This characterisation brings TMBR to understand lecture performances as a form of essayistic practice; assembling alternative narratives and counter knowledges to those in circulation, enabling unconsidered and overlooked perspectives. Lecture performances in short bring to the fore experimental formulations on the way we see things and the way we do things, not in order to remain conceptual but to have an affect on a public and everyday life through performative assembly.”

During FESTIWOL, an experimental art festival at
W-o-l-k-e in Brussels, That Might Be Right brought together Abla elBahrawy, Michiel Huijben and myself for an evening of lecture performances.