Counter-Archive / Public Installation
New Europeans
Cultural Programme of the Netherlands Presidency of the Council of the European Union
Amsterdam
2016
The Hut of European Identity is the unsolicited addition of footnotes and annotations at the margins of the institutional curatorial process that lead to the opening of the “house of european history” in brussels, in may 2017.
During the Netherlands Presidency of the Council of the European Union in Amsterdam, next to the area where the official meetings were taking place, I erected a small hut – or rather, a canopy – to host a provisional archive, an experiment in makeshift museology.
Inside the Hut of European Identity, I accumulated factious, partisan material and performative expressions, offering oblique readings through the european project. showing that european characters cannot be agreed upon, the hut hosts an idea of europe as a contested political space – a project, in fact.
Fabrics and sheets salvaged from the demolished sector of the “jungle” in calais form and cover an incline that protects the interior from the sun and the rain. under the roof, multilingual banners from athens, a pan-african flag, squatters’ posters, flower crowns dedicated to schengen, stencils from paris — what do we want to keep?
During the Netherlands Presidency of the Council of the European Union in Amsterdam, next to the area where the official meetings were taking place, I erected a small hut – or rather, a canopy – to host a provisional archive, an experiment in makeshift museology.
Inside the Hut of European Identity, I accumulated factious, partisan material and performative expressions, offering oblique readings through the european project. showing that european characters cannot be agreed upon, the hut hosts an idea of europe as a contested political space – a project, in fact.
Fabrics and sheets salvaged from the demolished sector of the “jungle” in calais form and cover an incline that protects the interior from the sun and the rain. under the roof, multilingual banners from athens, a pan-african flag, squatters’ posters, flower crowns dedicated to schengen, stencils from paris — what do we want to keep?
