Nothing could be more European than a dip in an urban river
In the second half of the nineteenth century, the Musée des Égouts was one of Paris’s prides, European royalty and dignitaries took underground tours – men on foot and women on little boats – of the city’s sewer system, symbol of France’s modernity. Last year, on the occasion of the Olympics, the museum hosted a […]
Armenian artists reimagine European cultural aesthetics through their own lens
The rival influences of Europe and Russia are everywhere and in plain sight in Yerevan. “Europe stands with Armenia. Together we are stronger,” reads a four-storey placard, adorned in EU colours, on Teryan Street. Just a few steps away, on the square opposite the opera building, the Mariinsky and Bolshoi Theatres are setting up for […]
A creative surge: European summer of exhibitions and festivals
4 SEPTEMBER-16 NOVEMBER. ROMAEUROPA FESTIVAL / ROME, ITALY European imagination as the fuel for change The spirit of Romaeuropa, festival of music, dance, theater, digital arts and creation for children, is truly European. Born in Rome at Villa Medici-Accademia di Francia, REF has developed in a network with the Academies and European cultural institutes of […]
Young people deserve a Europe that delivers
Meeting young people is one of the most rewarding parts of my job. From Palermo to Bologna, Torino to Rome, I meet students, young workers and entrepreneurs, full of ideas, ambition and optimism. But I also hear their doubts, about politics, about the slow pace of change, about whether they truly have a future in […]
After five years apart, our fight is far from over
On June 21st, we embraced for the first time in five years. After years of total isolation, with no letters, no calls, and no word from the outside world, Siarhei was suddenly released from a Belarus prison and brought across the border into Lithuania—together with other political prisoners. We had no warning. No chance to […]
New voices in Spanish cinema and the community they represent
Let’s talk about young European cinema, yes – but first, let’s set what the average age is to be considered a young European filmmaker. In Italy, if we take the David di Donatello award for Best Directorial Debut as a reference, this year it was deservedly won by Margherita Vicario, who is 37. “Gloria!” is […]
Why Europe’s call rings loudest in the Netherlands
On the morning of July 17, 2014, the Boeing 777-200ER was almost full. At 10:40 a.m., 283 passengers were seated on board, and the crew of fifteen was ready for takeoff. The plane was scheduled to fly for about twelve hours from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The flight did not even reach the […]
A wandering European architect redraws the Gulf
It is well known that the Emirates are now a construction El Dorado, a golden world that seems like a mirage (in the desert) to us. Construction, and no longer oil, is the leading contributor to GDP in Dubai, for example, the Milan of the United Arab Emirates, where Agata Kurzela, one of the most […]
Blaise Metreweli, the anthropologist steering Britain’s intelligence services
With her husky voice and languid gaze, Modesty Blaise has nothing to envy James Bond in terms of gadgets and elegance. Except that she is a woman – played by Monica Vitti, following the success of Peter O’Donnell’s comic books and novels – and this makes her even more extraordinary for an era, the 1960s, […]
How Europe’s rearming cities are rewriting the rules
The heart of French defense, and therefore of European defense, lies in the region of Bourges, a splendid town of seventy thousand inhabitants located on the “diagonal of emptiness,” the line that cuts the country from north to south, the part of France that became depopulated in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Even Bourges, the […]