Anna Konik, In the Middle of the Way (2001-2007), still-frame. Source: USE
The project looks into how Europeans feel about their union, from Ireland to Poland to Cyprus, through the work of artists and sociologists. Polish artists Artur Żmijewski and Anna Konik contribute video works that delve deep into the complexity of a common identity across borders and cultures
The question asked by the project organisers is,"What does it mean to be European today and how is this reflected in contemporary art across the continent?" They have engaged artists to give interpretations of European identity through photography and multimedia installations, along with sociologists who directly examine the feelings and thoughts of 50 respondents across Europe. A series of exhibitions and debates in Poland, Finland, Lithuania, Portugal, Cyprus, Germany, Bulgaria, France, Ireland and Belgium round out the programme, which launched on the 14th of November 2012 and runs through the end of May 2013.
The obvious inference is the concept of a unified federation of states, much like the U.S. While the EU is still young, its principles were envisioned by politicians and historians from Napoleon to Winston Churchill and Tadeusz Kościuszko. Victor Hugo stated in 1849 that "A day will come when all nations on our continent will form a European brotherhood. ... A day will come when we shall see ... the United States of America and the United States of Europe face to face, reaching out for each other across the seas". Today the prospects of a pan-European nation spans political and geographical lines, and socio-cultural ones as well, and the heterogeneity of cultural identities make it difficult to pinpoint a single "European" identity.
The artists included in the exhibition explore these varied facets of identity through a wide spectrum of means, asking questions without necessarily providing answers. Gerda Lampalzer addresses the problem of power relations among European nation-states, and Maria Lusitano-Santos analyses the question of homeland asking what makes a place feel like home. Anu Pennanen extends the parameters, undertaking problems of ethnicity and migration.
Curator Ryszard W. Kluszczyński has brought the Polish artists Artur Żmijewski and Anna Konik into the project. Żmijewski presents his Democracies series, a ten-monitor video installation that delves into the symbols of national protest movements and activism and fanaticism across Europe, while Anna Konik draws attention to the consequences of poverty, homelessness and marginalization.
Artur Żmijewski began recording Democracies in 2009, with the question "Who belongs to Europe, who does not? Who is democratic, Who is not?" He began recording in various European cities, documenting nationalist parades and football frenzies, demonstrations for the right to abortion or for fair wages, military parades, reenactments of historic battles including the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, the nationalist poitician Jörg Haider's funeral in Austria, then extended the project to include border controls and unrest in the Gaza Strip. Without commentary to direct the viewer, Democracies relies solely on images to communicate the many struggles within Europe for so many different truths.
In his works, Żmijewski (born in 1966, in Warsaw) makes reference to displaced individuals and societal trauma. His images appear to be strictly documentary photographs and video at first glance, yet the artist's analytical staging becomes clearly recognizable, manifested through his selection of images during the editing process. He does not shy away from putting generally accepted rules of political correctness into question. He curated the Berlin Biennale in 2012, resulting in a unique, controversial internation art festival dominated by themes of social unrest and protest, and inspired by the global Occupy and Arab Spring movements.
Anna Konik has traveled through Europe with her 7-channel video installation In the Middle of the Way (2001-2007), which follows those who have been marginalised as immigrants, refugees or the homeless. Anna Konik's experience as an international artist working between Poland and Germany plays a part in her interpretations. For Konik, the idea of home and its role in forming identity is crucial. As the artist explains,
The mobility of Tadeusz, Herman, Svetlana, Gerard, Hans-Dieter, Jana & Pele and Anna opens up a dialogue in which geographical boundaries and nationalities are not important. Instead, their individual stories, experiences and dreams build their unique identity and confirm their differentness in a world where nationalities are fluid. Every person I met dreams of a better life, of respect and freedom, they are all trying to find their way in the new reality of the EU.
Anna Konik (born in 1974, in Dobrodzień) combines semi-documentary video, installation, performance and sculpture. Konik’s art operates in a non-material realm, giving material shape to that which is often invisible. She creates her works based on intimate contact with the person who is her subject. Reaching into deep spheres of human existence - perceptions, emotions, intuition - her video installations aim to render the human condition immortal.
The exhibition The United States of Europe traveled to Paris in mid-January 2013, after showing in Łódź, Helsinki, Vilnius, Guimarães, Nicosia, Dresden and Sofia in 2012. On the 7th of March 2013 it continues on to Cork, Ireland, where it is on show through the 31st of March. Its tour concludes in Belgium between the 18th of April - 26th of May 2013.
Artists in the exhibition: Artur Zmijewski (Poland), Luchezar Boyadjiev (Bulgaria), Anna Konik (Poland), Gerda Lampalzer (Austria), Maria Lusitano Santos (Portugal), Deimantas Narkevicius (Lithuania), Jean-Charles Hue (France ), Kaarina Kaikkonen
(Finland), REINIGUNGSGESELLSCHAFT (artistic group, Germany), Tanja Muravskaja (Estonia), Kennedy Browne (artistic group, Ireland), Apostolis Polymeris (Belgium), Kyriaki Costa (Cyprus) and Anu Pennanen (Finland). Jānis Garancs (Latvia), multimedia artist and researcher, created the interactive lab.
Curators: Anna Bitkina (Russia), Ryszard W. Kluszczyński (Poland) and Sinziani Ravini (France).
For more information, see: www.go-use.eu/en
Editor: Agnieszka Le Nart
Source: USE