GIVE TO TAKE / Intellectual Property Agency / QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
Question by Simona Nastac (Curator, London)
Question:
Do you think the concept of Eastern Europe is still appropriate within New Europe?
In your opinion, are all the members of New Europe defined as a unity, rather than in opposition to one another (especially in relation to the artworld)?
Answer by Eleonore de Montesquiou (Artist living in Paris, Berlin and Tallinn)
Do you think the concept of Eastern Europe is still appropriate within
New Europe?
yes, very much so, as long as the grandmothers are alive, they have a common language, they grew up with the same cartoons on Tv, songs, etc, but it is not the case anymore for the kids born after Perestroïka...
they are similarities in all fields
- economics
- social security
- in the countries with a strong russian population: celebrations/conflicts/citizenship issues
- they all have in common is a very difficult relationship with Russia
- crushed insutry and agriculture, strong service based economy
- creation of a (new)national identity, this a long topic, but at least the most obvious signs of creation of an image: monuments, e-economy booming, beautiful women, honey...
and so on..
In your opinion, are all the members of New Europe defined as a unity, rather than in opposition to one another (especially in relation to the artworld)?
No, not from the inside, it is a Wetsern cliché indeed to include all Eastern artists in a group, or Southern Eastern artists on the one hand/Northern Eastern, or the Baltics (which does not mean anything...) and so on - practical organisation for exhibitions
They are some links of course, Tallinn-Riga, Tallinn-Vilnius but they are based on personal connection rather than an essential unity
