PRESS

EXHIBITION FOR THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF

THE TREATIES OF ROME

50 Years of a European Adventure

With the support of the European Commission & the Federal Government

Site Tour & Taxis

Avenue du Port, 86
1000 Brussels
 Contents

Europe, Our History!

Introduction

The Exhibition Route

Inter-schools competition – related activities

The Authors of the Exhibition

Practical Information
Europe, Our History!

2007: The Jubilee of the Treaties of Rome. For the Museum of

Europe, a cultural institution whose purpose is to tell Europeans
about the roots of their common civilisation, this anniversary of the
foundation of Europe could not be allowed to go unmarked. And the
same goes for the European Institutions, which are the voice of the
new European citizens.

The Exhibition “It’s our history” is designed as an expression of this

European citizenship. By telling the people about themselves and
their lives, simply, sympathetically, and with feeling, and mixing
H istory with the history of every individual, it will show everyone
that Europe is about them, too.

Our purpose in organising this exhibition, which is to be the basis for

the future permanent exhibition at the Museum of Europe, is to bring
the history of Europe to a public including many young people who
often have little, if any, interest in the topic; their emotions have to
be involved, making them feel that this history concerns them, that
it’s their history – their past and their future.

Antoinette Spaak
Karel Van Miert

The exhibition It’s Our History! being held in Brussels in 2007 – 2008
is the benchmark exhibition celebrating the Fiftieth Anniversary of
the signing of the Treaties of Rome, supported by the European
Commission, the Belgian Federal Government, and the federated
organisations of this country. The private sector has also supported
this initiative, just as it has supported the museum project from the
beginning.
Introduction

The spirit of the exhibition

“It’s our history! ” aims to raise awareness amongst Europeans of

the history of Europe. The exhibition is aimed at the general public
and at all age groups, but its main target audience is young people,
who generally consider Europe as a fact of nature and take little or
no interest in its history. This is why “It’s our history! ” elicits both
an emotional and an intellectual response. It shows us that our
history concerns all Europeans; that it is their history – in other
words their past, and therefore their future.

Organizing principles

1. The context of the 'great' history of European construction is

intertwined with the 'small' history of its citizens. Politics and
material civilisation, world and daily events, shared adventures and
individual destinies are constantly interwoven in a rich fabric of
emotions, reflections and identification.
2. The common thread is the history of European integration after
the Second World War.
3. The itinerary is thematically organised in chronological order.
4. The context of the history of European integration is the Cold War
and the political, economic, technical, cultural and moral changes
happening on a world scale.
Museum exhibits

“It’s our history! ”’ is an exhibition of ‘civilisation’, backed by a wide

range of museum resources:

 spectacular works of art scattered over the exhibition itinerary,

most of which have been commissioned for the occasion;
 the exhibition includes some 700 objects from dozens of
museums throughout Europe. Special displays are used to
interpret the exhibits in order to immerse visitors in the
museum experience and to make the exhibits speak for
themselves (Marie-Hélène Joly);
 original interactive displays offer visitors the opportunity to
participate actively in the exhibition. Visitors are encouraged to
become involved rather than remaining passive spectators. The
exhibition is deliberately designed as an act of citizenship;
 Citizens from the 27 countries of the European Union,
witnesses and participants in the history of Europe, accompany
visitors throughout the itinerary as symbolic guides.
The Exhibition Route

So many peace treaties…

Two works by contemporary artists face each other. They symbolise

2000 years of European fratricidal wars and attempts at peace.
The first, by German artist Günter Demnig, covers 12 metres and
gathers together no fewer than 2,000 years of European peace
treaties. Facing it is ‘Missa’ by Quebec artist Dominique Blain. This is
made up of a hundred military ankle boots, hanging by strings as
though an army were on the march.

‘I was’

This could be an official photograph of a European summit showing

the Heads of State of the European Union member countries posing
for posterity.
These 27 will reappear several times along the exhibition route to
tell of the times when their histories crossed with the History of
Europe.

1945: Europe, Year 0

From wall to wall, the floor is suspended above a mosaic of aerial

photographs of the ruins of a bombed town. This is the starting
point of the building of Europe: ruins scattered across a torn
continent. Slides stream past along the walls. No images, just texts
in white light, like film credits. But these are the credits to war, not
film, and list its dreadful toll - the millions of dead in a Europe of
extermination, the millions of exiles in a Europe of refugees, the
billions in damage to a Europe in ruins, the figures of a Europe
starving, divided, and humiliated.
This installation is the work of artist Dominique Blain.
This space also exhibits objects testifying to daily life at the end of
the war. Ration books, a food tin turned into a cheese grater,
posters describing how to economise on bread, sugar, and milk. But
it also shows that the end of war means the return of hope: posters
for the first local fetes, plans for rebuilding houses, new products
such as nylon stockings and chewing gum.

The European Revolution (1946-1951)

The whole room is a three-dimensional staging of a picture from

Fernand Léger’s series “The Builders”. This series of paintings,
produced from 1950 onward, evokes, like no other, a Europe starting
again. It shows workers balancing on beams of steel - and this is the
appropriate material here, for the first step in the construction of
Europe was the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community
(ECSC) in 1951.

At the centre of the space, the seven silhouettes of the Fathers of

Europe are arranged on either side of the precariously balanced
central beam, on which is a simple, small steel ingot engraved with
the letters E.U.R.O.P., the first ‘casting’ of the ECSC.
Yesterday’s enemies had joined forces in a common project, coal and
steel – materials which, only a few years earlier, were being used to
cast their guns. This was the true European revolution, the
conquerors reaching out to conquered Germany to rebuild the
continent together.

On one of the side walls, four niches are dedicated to other

protagonists – further afield – of the beginning of the construction
of Europe: Winston Churchill, the ‘Pilgrim of Peace’ embodying the
new wind blowing through Europe; Joseph Stalin - for Europe was
also built as a bulwark against him; Americans Truman and Marshall,
whose contributions were essential for European reconstruction; and
economists Lord Beveridge and John Maynard Keynes, for in order to
rebuild Europe, the theory underlying its whole economy had to be
completely overhauled...

Europe divided (1952 -1989)

The largest space in the exhibition is dedicated to the construction

of Europe in the middle of the Cold War. A great table, similar to
those seen during political negotiations, flanked by giant screens
showing images of the years 1951 to 1989, separates Western
Europe from Eastern Europe.

Three themes have been chosen to illustrate Western Europe in the

1950s, ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s: decolonisation, daily life, and the fall of
the dictatorships.

The setting for decolonisation is the waiting room of a small African

airport. This room is packed with cases and trunks that look as
though they have been abandoned in a general stampede. A small
gangway goes up to the cabin of a Sabena DC-6. While the nations
of Western Europe were renewing themselves in a common project,
their international influence was being lost through decolonisation -
while they were rebuilding here, they were crumbling away
elsewhere.

Daily life is shown in the form of three apartments, the first from the
‘50s, the second dating from the late ‘60s, and the third from
around 1980. Each apartment has just one room, containing the
items in daily use which evolved most over these decades. What is
being evoked here is the development of the societies of Europe -
the democratisation of leisure activities, the advent of mass
consumption, changes in the position of women, and the clash of
traditional culture with youth culture and protest.

The fall of the dictators is evoked by a sequence of three works.

First comes a dark corridor with four cell doors. The first three define
the places and eras: the Greece of the Colonels, the dictatorship of
Salazar in Portugal, and Franco’s regime in Spain. The fourth opens
onto an interrogation room: table, chair, lamp, and portraits of the
dictators on the wall. At the exit, names and figures are engraved on
the walls, reminding us that it is not so long since the basic rights of
European citizens were reduced virtually to zero.

In the central area, occupied by an immense table suggesting the

great negotiations that were the moving force behind the
construction of Europe, visitors can sit in the twenty five chairs. In
front of each chair, a screen with headphones presents the events of
the construction of Europe, from the signing of the Treaty of Rome
to the Single European Act.

Before leaving the period 1951-1989, a journey has to be taken to

the East. The décor evokes a street lined with housing typical of the
Communist countries, recognisable by their shapes, their pallid
colours, and the flickering street lighting. The boxes forming this
scenario, which suggest dwellings, are in fact display windows
containing objects or images symbolising the events that marked the
European countries of the Soviet block before 1989.

The Fall of the Wall (1989)

The fall of the Berlin Wall is initially evoked by sound only; this is a
work by the young Belgian composer, Cédric Dambrain.
Visitors will then see some twenty photographs with commentaries
originating from major press agencies, occupying the walls round an
overthrown statue of Lenin. This photographic sequence illustrates
the major events leading to the falling of the wall and the downfall of
the Communist regimes.

Towards the unification of Europe (1990-2007)

A corridor opens onto a brightly lit fresco celebrating the latest

enlargements of the European Union. Several major events stand
out on this fresco.

The first is the Treaty of Maastricht, which was signed in 1991 and
came into effect in 1993, the new foundation treaty of the European
Union, based on the three pillars: the European Communities, the
Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), and Justice and Home
Affairs (JIA)

The second is the coming into force of the Schengen agreement in

1995. By abolishing identity controls between its twelve signatory
countries, this agreement demonstrates that the only frontier that
matters is that of the European Union.

The third is the introduction of the Euro in 2002. This common

currency is one of the most important symbols of the construction
of Europe.

The fourth consists of the successive enlargements. Then come the

rejection of the European Constitution (French and Dutch referenda)
and the Erasmus programme, which enables students to continue
their studies outside their home countries.
The Union in a globalised world

This section comprises a corridor flanked by five alcoves.

Five scenes featuring containers symbolise globalisation, for this is

the backdrop against which the future will be determined. Each
container holds crates, often from beyond Europe. At the centre of
each set, a film makes the viewer ponder on the challenges faced by
Europe today: to be competitive while retaining the social benefits
that differentiate Europe; care for the environment without forgoing
economic development, safeguarding security without sacrificing
basic liberties, controlling immigration without abandoning the right
of asylum, providing an education that is as broadly-based as
possible.

The Euro-barometer

At the previous section, the visitor learnt about the challenges that
globalisation poses for Europe. Now he is asked to enter the mind of
a responsible European politician and to make decisions on Europe's
priorities. He is awarded a budget for this purpose: it is up to him to
allocate the budget according to the priorities set. As the visitors'
votes are cast, the results are displayed. In due course, we get a real
barometer of the main European concerns.

It’s our history

At a console the visitor inputs his/her date of birth and various

details describing his personality: geographical origins, taste in
music, hobbies (cinema, sport, theatre, etc). The computer selects
images from a database and builds up the visitor's ‘biographical clip’
since 1957. The clip is scrolled over four screens, each of which
expresses a topic-related field. At the first screen we see events
that define the construction of Europe; at the second we have
background events during construction, and at the remaining two,
images of events are selected according to the visitor's profile.

The treaties of Rome

The exhibition commemorating the fiftieth anniversary could hardly

close without .... a presentation on the treaties themselves. The
visitor can learn about these in all majesty... though their appearance
might cause a little surprise to some.

Our shared past

It is shared European values alone that enabled us to build today's

Europe. It is also because they have a shared past that Europeans
have succeeded in rising to the challenges of the past fifty years.
This is the proposition behind the final section of the exhibition. This
section presents a shower of images to make Europeans aware that
they share a collective consciousness, which is one way of
answering the question of the secure foundations on which the
European Union is built.
They put on display 2,000 years of European art, customs, the most
illustrious people in its history, events that have left their imprint on
all, and the heritage sites that symbolise them.
Inter-school competitions and associated
initiatives
The Museum of Europe is organising a grand European inter-school
competition. The competition will be arranged in partnership with
European Schoolnet (EUN), a European network bringing together
national education ministries, teachers and schools from all EU
member states, with support from the Ryckevelde Foundation,
European Teachers' Association and European Parents' Association.
We could thereby encourage healthy competition among schools
throughout the EU, arousing and stimulating interest in the European
Union and its history, and induce a large number of schools and
teachers to take part in the competition. The winners will be invited
to visit the exhibition and to attend a Young Persons' Parliament at
the European Parliament in Brussels.

Alongside the exhibition, conferences (for the general public) will be

organised. A visitors' guide to the exhibition, an educational dossier
and an historical essay on the construction of Europe will be
published.
The exhibition's creators

The exhibition was devised by Tempora s.a. at the invitation of

Museum of Europe, and is a foretaste of our permanent future
display.

Where is the Museum of Europe?

The Museum of Europe is a cultural project. It was instigated ten

years ago by a small group of historians and cultural promoters from
civil society that wished to allow Europeans to discover the roots of
their shared civilisation. Over the years, the non-profit organisation
has acquired a set of governing bodies – a Pan-European Steering
Committee, a solid Scientific Committee and a Financial Committee –
and forged close links with other European history museums. It was
this group that took the initiative to create a European network of
history museums.

We consider that “It’s our history !” – the third exhibition of the

Museum of Europe – is the exhibition that launches the Museum.
The life of a museum depends on its projects and it justifies its
existence by organising activities. To date, the Museum of Europe
has organised two international colloquiums (Les frontières de
l’Europe in 1999 and De l’Europe-monde à l’Europe dans le monde in
2002), as well as two ‘prefiguration’ exhibitions: La Belle Europe
(October 2001 – March 2002) and Dieu(x), modes d’emploi
(October 2006 – May 2007), currently exhibiting in Madrid (until
January 2008), then Zagreb and Paris (2008), and no doubt
elsewhere in Europe.
During the decade that has elapsed since the creation of the non-
profit association ‘Museum of Europe’, we have succeeded in
persuading people of the absolute need for a ‘place of memory’ in
Brussels. A genuine convergence of views has been identified
between:

- major economic actors and foundations which, as founder

members or occasional sponsors, have supported our project
from the outset;
- the federal government, which funded the ‘prefiguration’ phase
of the project, as well as a large part of the launch exhibition;
- the Government of the Brussels-Capital Region, a partner of the
Association since its creation, as well as other federal entities;
- The European Commission, which financed (using a
competition) the launch exhibition to the tune of 1 million
euros;
- The current European Parliament President, Hans-Gert
Pöttering, is determined to create a ‘House of Europe’ based on
the German model of Houses of History, which fits in perfectly
with our plans.

Negotiations are already under way to choose the definitive building

for the Museum of Europe. We shall be focusing on this over the
coming months.

Each exhibition is a tribulation. It also serves as a test: if we achieve

public success we can fairly claim that the Museum of Europe has
fulfilled its part of the bargain.
Tempora
Tempora s.a. are Belgium's specialists in devising and creating
exhibitions and displays designed to popularise science. It was
founded in 1998 by Benoît Remiche and the ''Groupe De Boeck''.

Some examples of Tempora productions:

- ''La Belle Europe'' (Beautiful Europe) Exhibition, (first
exhibition foreshadowing the Museum of Europe, which ran in
Brussels from autumn 2001 to spring 2002).
- Memorial section and Walloon Museum of lndustry at Bois du
Cazier in Marcinelle.
- Communications section at Parentville Science Centre.
- Biotechnology section at Parentville Science Centre.
- ''Spirit of Europe'' section in Brussels.
- Maison de l’eau (Water House) in Verviers.
- Archaeology forum of Place Saint-Lambert in Liège.
- Display at Heysel Stadium in Brussels.
- Exhibition ''Einstein: l'autre regard'' (Einstein: the other view)
(Brussels, December 2005 – April 2006).
- Exhibition of the 50th anniversary of the Marcinelle disaster
(August - December 2006).
- Exhibition ''Dieu(x): modes d'emploi'' (God(s): methods of use),
(Brussels, November 2006 - May 2007; Madrid (September
2007-January 2008), November - December 2007; Paris,
spring 2008).

Recently, Tempora also won the contract, together with Franco

Dragone, for the staging of the Waterloo memorial (opening in
2010).

Located in Brussels, Tempora employs 15 people.

Practical information
The exhibition runs from 26 October 2007 to 23 March 2008
Tour & Taxis site, 86 Avenue du Port – 1000 Brussels.

Exhibition languages
French, Dutch, English, German

Opening times
Monday to Friday: 09.00 to 17.00 hrs
Saturday, Sunday and public holidays: 10.00 to 18.00 hrs
School holidays: 10.00 to 18.00 hrs
Duration of visit: 1hr 30 to 2 hours.

Tarifs
Normal tariff: €10
Concessions: Seniors, students, unemployed: €8
Children (age 6-18): €7
Children under age 6: free of charge
Groups of adults (minimum 15 persons): €8 p.p.
School and youth groups: €6 p.p.

Reservation is required for school parties

and groups (guided and non-guided visits)
by telephone: +32 (0)2 549 60 49
Monday to Friday, 09.30 to 12.30hrs and 13.30 to 17.00 hrs
or by e-mail: info@expo-europe.be

Guided tour: €60 (approx. 20 persons) in French, Dutch, English,

German, Spanish, Italian. With advance reservation only.

Programme of other special events

can be consulted at the website.
Access
Access route: www.tourtaxis.be <http://www.tourtaxis.be>
15 minutes' walking time from Gare du Nord
Bus route 14 (from Gare du Nord – Tour & Taxis stop)
Metro: Yser
Parking for cars and coaches
Shop and cafeteria.

General information
www.expo-europe.be Tel: +32 (0)2 549 60 49
info@expo-europe.be Fax: +32 (0)2 549 60 41.

INFORMATION PRESS

Liane Steyaert
0475/ 38 21 06
lsteyaert@telenet.be