Pieces of a mosaic, never identical, held together by the fabric of cultural and historical ties. Europe’s history stretches back thousands of years, shaped by cultural exchanges, religious diasporas, wars and reconciliations, alliances and divisions.
This same history has brought together 450 million people speaking 24 official languages across 27 member states.
While the ‘EU Project’ undoubtedly sealed the political and economic union of nations, the peoples within it remain like pieces of a mosaic — never identical, held together by the fabric of cultural and historical ties through which this project has been able to take root.
I set out to find differences and found myself connecting the dots — that became the ‘North Star’ of my journey. I travelled 50,000 kilometres across Europe to explore its middle ground, its “median,” intentionally avoiding its extremes whenever possible.
I chose not to focus on capital cities — unless the majority of a country’s population lived there — and instead followed alternative paths that led me to erase national borders and view latitude and longitude as the only boundaries of this land.
Along the way, I explored several themes: Architecture, Spaces, Infrastructure, Employment, Society, Customs, Memory and lastly, Borders.
Manuel Cicchetti
