Subjective mapping of the EU, from an Estonian point of view
Autumn 2003
In 2003 the EU had extended to 25 members — and most people needed needed a cheat sheet to name all countries. Hardly anyone had read the full ‘acquis communautaire’, 80.000 pages of legislation. The EU is not a state with revolutionary origins but a compilation of different political, historical and cultural entities. The European Union is a concept based on networks and shared values. But every country, every city and each citizen has its own perception of this growing Union. In order to bring these visions together, to learn to know each other, in order to make the EU-concept work we need to share the different perspectives.We need to develop, visualise and exchange our thoughts.
Workshop at Estonian School of Arts (Tallinn, Estonia), by Annelys de Vet & Kristjan Mändmaa, 13–30 October 2003
Therefore Subjective Editions wanted to design, compilate and print a ‘Subjective Atlas of the European Union from an Estonian point of view’. On the invitation of Kristjan Mändmaa from the Estonian School of Arts, we challenged the graphic design students of Tallinn to map the EU, to visualise the differences, sizes, amounts and similarities that they observed from their position.
What started as a workshop turned out to become the start of a series of Subjective atlases….
Acknowledgements
This workshop and the printing of the atlas was supported by the Embassy for the Netherlands in Tallin.
