FOUR CITIES, ONE FESTIVAL

Fifty-three events spread over four European cities for two weeks. After three editions of the London Festival of Europe, the project realised by the organization European Alternatives extends itself to Bologna, Cluj and Paris and becomes Transeuropa Festival.

Transeuropa is the first truly transnational festival in Europe, from the 25th April to the 10th May, a date close to Europe Day, happening simultaneously in London, Paris, Bologna and Cluj-Napoca. It is at once a cultural and artistic festival and a political event, which has been constructed by a team of individuals from throughout the continent. Partners of the event are the cultural foundations Allianz Kulturstiftung and Gulbenkian Foundation, the European Commission as well as many other associations in each of the four cities of the festival.

All of its events are free of charge and open to anyone. They deal with topics such as urban poverty, migrants’ rights, the Bologna Process, feminism, and democracy. The program puts together urban walks, film projections, theatrical performances, debates, artistic events. The festival welcomes thinkers, artists, politicians, activists, and citizens of all countries to each of the Festival cities, as well as online, to help us create Europe from the ground up.

Each Festival city focuses on a specific topic. London deals with “Europe and Democracy”; Paris with “Europe and the rest of the world”; Cluj puts the focus on “Cultural diversity” and Bologna on “European mobility”. The festival brings closer the cities and their citizens by offering events that deal with similar topics, through the mobility of guests and participants of the festival throughout its four cities and through the use of new media, with web streaming and simultaneous debates online.

Among the confirmed guests there are renowned sociologist Saskia Sassen, feminist scholar and former member of the European parliament Geneviève Fraisse, philosopher Michela Marzano, historian Donald Sassoon, and sinologist François Jullien. The program includes the presence of Austrian artist Oliver Ressler, whose video installation What is Democracy? will be screened in all four cities. The programme includes 53 events and many other guests.

The festival has been thought and conceived by European Alternatives, a civil society organization of activists, thinkers, artists and young volunteers with the purpose of developing a way of thinking which is trans- and post-national.

Following the 2010 Transeuropa festival our ambition is to take the festival to additional cities in 2011 and 2012. Preparations are already being made in Belgrade, Berlin, Istanbul, Sofia, and St Petersburg.