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United States of Europe (U.S.E)
A travelling exhibition about European identity and today’s Europe
Opening from 17 September until 14 October 2012
D
o you feel European? Does Mr O’Keeffe in
Ireland feel more or less European than Mrs
Stylianou in Cyprus? And if so, why? What is the
idea behind Europe and do Europeans feel in-
cluded? Do Europeans trust their leaders? Maybe
there are as many different answers to these ques-
tions as there are citizens in Europe.
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. The exhibition opened in Lodz, Poland,
in November 2011; the second destination was
Helsinki, the third was Vilnius and the fourth was
Guimarães. In September the exhibition opened
in Nicosia, as part of the cultural programme of
the Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the Eu-
ropean Union.
United States of Europe (U.S.E), a large-scale col-
laboration project about European identity, will
also be presented in public spaces, galleries and
museums in Germany, Bulgaria, France, Ireland
and Belgium until spring 2013.
The concept
U.S.E is not propaganda for a federal Europe. It
aims to create commitment in the Europe in which
we live and to function as a communication plat-
form for people living in Europe. The exhibition
offers a lot of different interpretations on European
identity through diverse disciplines and from dif-
ferent angles.
U.S.E comprises four dimensions:
1. Artists interpretations:
Curators and artists
have been invited to give their interpretations of
European identity through photos, multimedia,
video and other installations.
2. Sociological studies:
50 people from 10 differ-
ent countries have been interviewed. The result is
video-recorded interviews that give comparable re-
sults of a potential belonging to a European entity.
3.An interactive laboratory:
This is a place in the
exhibition where the artistic and sociological parts
are combined. The laboratory is a creative environ-
ment for real-time exchanges about Europe today.