EUROPEAN VISIONS - Humans behind Europe
The aim of this art project is to perceive Europeans as individuals and to hear voices of different social backgrounds from all Member States. By interviewing people across the 27 EU countries through the EUROPEAN VISIONS questionnaire, the project aims to promote intercultural understanding within the European community. The positions of the people of different backgrounds are seen and heard through a multimedia travelling exhibition.
Take part!
At EUROPEAN VISIONS you are the designer of art, life and society! Contribute with your positive visions to the development of a society that offers hope for a more beautiful Europe!
Every European is asked to take part in the survey! If you also take part as the first representative of your profession➡️ , you can be part of the touring exhibition EUROPEAN VISIONS! You will also receive a hand-signed art print of your work as a thank you. The questions are intense but quickly answered. You don’t have to be an art expert and can participate anonymously.
EUROPEAN VISIONS-questionnaire, page 2
In the first part of the questionnaire, you design your own painting, which is then put into practice.
In the second part of the survey, you will share your situation as an individual and citizen of your country as well as your wishes regarding personal and social life via video message using a given guide.
With your help, EUROPEAN VISIONS can serve as a bridge to other imaginations. It is for all people who believe in a Europe of coexistence and not of against each other.
To a Europe where racism, discrimination and exclusion have no chance!
References
Andrea Cochius and Robert Menasse (Germany, 2018)
A traveling exhibition across Europe unites our society about their visions and their individual sense of beauty – created by people from different social backgrounds from all EU member states!
Stations of the traveling exhibition will be cities and municipalities – national and European – and the European Parliament in Brussels.
Award-winning author Robert Menasse also supports the project. He wrote the European novel “The Capital” and was awarded the German Book Prize.
EUROPEAN VISIONS received the KWW grant from the Künstlerdorf Schöppingen Foundation.
All EU citizens are invited to participate!
Andrea Cochius (Artist and initiator)
Andrea Cochius is a trained stone sculptor, a project manager, a studied artist and a trained teacher in the subjects art and German.
Her artistic work covers a wide range and has already taken her to the remotest parts of the earth. So she collected on the streets of India life stories of chance encounters, which she gave a face on the sketchbook (“Bio-graphical Short Stories”). Her work as an art and culture blogger brought her an official invitation to the Frankfurt Book Fair.
Her paintings and drawings have been exhibited many times, including in Berlin, Miami and Basel; her illustrations are published in poetry books.
Furthermore, Andrea Cochius is involved in the association “Arbeit an Europa” and supports the work of the Europe-Engaged u. a. as a video documentary.
Andrea Cochius is a member of the GEDOK (Gemeinschaft der Künstlerinnen und Kunstförderer) and the BBK (Bund Bildender Künstler).
Support!
EUROPEAN VISIONS painting: “Robert Menasse, writer,”, acrylic and oil on canvas, 180×150 cm. To the questionnaire from Robert Menasse➡️
Purchase your own EUROPEAN VISIONS painting and support the project:
1.) Please complete the Questionnaire➡️ or make it filled out by the person it’s mend for!
2.) Sign the Form➡️ and send or email both copies to the address given there.
Or just E-mail➡️ me, even with your phone number. I’ll call you back immediately!
Or you can purchase a european VISIONS painting that has already been created:
To the background
From postman to architect to politician. What does the Czech construction worker dream of? And what about the German one? Which is the Spanish architect’s favourite artist? And what visions does a Greek philosopher have about our society?
The questionnaires answered form the basis of a playful and imaginative study of european preferences and satisfaction.
In each of the 27 EU countries, representatives of the most frequently executed occupational group are interviewed. One representative of the lower strata, one of the middle strata and one of the upper strata.
It is not the artist who determines the picture elements (color, art style, picture motif), but the person interviewed by the questionnaire. The free choice of picture elements makes it possible to see which styles still fascinate people most throughout the history of art. Also, the nature of the person being questioned is symbolized, as their inner / individual is shown by the choice of picture elements.
Since time immemorial, people are longing for beauty and trying to “bring beauty into the world and into their lives” (Birgit Recki: “Apology of Beauty in a Pragmatic Perspective”). And by no means in a superficial sense. Even for Plato beauty is not to be considered in isolation, but only in connection with the good, the morally excellent, and the truth.
In my project, I am not only referring to Ursula von der Leyen, who, in her inaugural address to the Presidency of the European Commission, on 16.09.20, said: “This is our opportunity to make change happen by design – not by disaster or by diktat from others in the world.”
“Everyone is an artist”, as Joseph Beuys once aptly remarked. The survey method of EUROPEAN VISIONS provides for three steps that pave the way so that every person can create a work.
Self-reflection The questionnaire asks the interviewee to think about themselves: about experiences that are of real importance in their life and about their preferences and desires.
Vision The questionnaire encourages the design of desirable future models. In terms of personal/social life and art.
Implementation Each participant is the creator of his vision/image: the respondent can have a direct influence on the artistic style of the resulting painting.
For a long time, the idea of a united Europe was just a bold dream of visionaries. A dream that is taking shape more and more over the last few years.
The merger of the European countries ensured a peaceful and progressive cooperation and proves that a united Europe is greater than the sum of its parts.
But on this bright idea spreads a dark shadow: The anti-European and prejudiced populism, which wants to defame and destroy the idea of Europe.
We want to keep the European dream alive. Very practical with political concepts such as “area of freedom, security and justice” or answers to questions, e.g. How we can strengthen European identity while taking cultural diversity into account. The prerequisite for any good answer is that we open our hearts and develop visions!
And here you are asked: Your answers to the questionnaire will create an art project that will help to keep alive the European dream and to ensure that it can continue to be realized: EUROPEAN VISIONS – Humans behind Europe.
The European integration in numbers
Questions and answers
Thanks for your interest. Contact us by mail at acochius@gmail.com and we are happy to talk about times, extent, duration and other details.
Thanks for your interest. We are already working on a “European Visions” school kit. Leave a note to acochius@gmail.com and we will let you know when it is ready.
Thanks for your interest. For interviews, background information and pictures please contact acochius@gmail.com.
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