Transeuropa Festival

 “Strange things are happening in Europe these days”, our grandmas would say, and they wouldn’t be completely wrong. The guided tour of Bologna where the guides were the immigrants and not the Italians and the simultaneous kissing flash-mobs in Paris and Amsterdam, where gay, lesbian and heterosexual couples gathered together and kissed to ask for equal rights are just two of the events that have brightened up Europe this week. It would take our grandmas a while to realize that these events were not the random effects of the influence that spring magic has on some people.  As a matter of fact these events were not at all random, on the contrary, they were part of a very well structured project: the Transeuropa Festival, a cultural and political initiative that promotes democracy, equality and culture beyond the nation state through the organization of shows, exhibitions, concerts and other events in twelve cities across Europe simultaneously.

“When we talk about Europe we usually focus on its economic and institutional aspects often ignoring the importance of building a cultural and intellectual identity shared by its citizens. “ Says festival coordinator Ségolène Pruvot. “We believe that art plays an essential role in the building of a new society.”  

The initiative offers an opportunity to create a common political and cultural space for exchange, debate and action, for this reason the leading themes of the festival are hotspots of the political and social debate in Europe: migration, Roma and traveler rights, media freedom and a more just economy after the crisis.

“We wanted to reach an audience that wasn’t necessarily familiar with these topics but that could be interested in an intellectual and artistic approach to these themes. Our aim is to organize events where citizens can play an active role, in order to give them the chance to discuss about subjects that matter from a different perspective and to get active”.

The festival was initially started in London in 2008 by European Alternatives, a civil society organization, devoted to the exploration  and promotion of transnational politics and culture. This year the organization has decided to make the festival really transnational, involving other cities in Europe.

Transeuropa is supported by the European Cultural Foundation, the Allianz-Kulturstiftung  and the European Union.

http://www.euroalter.com/festival/