Igor Bošnjak

Recently, a few months ago I made a big, huge painting of Europe, well not Europe but something similiar. In fact it is a European map, but very strange and awkward. It is a relief map, size about 3,7 x 5 meters, where Europe is represented as an island completely isolated. Later, above that map I shoot a movie. It is film about how Europe nowadays is becoming something else... Film/Video is in a stage of production. That video will show Europe as a self-sufficient form of existence, as an Eutopia island which will soon become a self-containment region in a psychological way. Something is very disturbing, about how we perceive Europe today. This video is my projection of idea of Europe. By using video as a medium and web oriented digital interactive tools, I want to create and film an interactive map of Europe. I will explore social-media-human relations and influences of economic and refugees crisis on today's Europe or European Union. In a psychogeographical way the Europe map will be represented as a big EUtopia island. In the text below I use a lot of Slavoj Zizek thoughts on Europe nowadays. The 20th century is over. A totalitarian regime is incapable of surviving in the long run. If we want to maintain the image of ourselves we have in the West, then we have to revisit the immense questions relating to the expansion of democratic freedoms and to the process of self-emancipation. It is here where Europe is most threatened. But I am convinced that we need Europe more than ever. Just imagine a world without Europe. You would only have two poles left - the USA, with its brutal neoliberalism, and so-called Asian capitalism, with its authoritarian political structures. You would lose the most valuable part of the European legacy, where democracy and freedom entail a collective action without which equality and fairness would not be possible.
We feel too guilty in Europe - our multicultural tolerance is the effluent of a bad conscience, of a guilt complex that could cause Europe to perish. The greatest threat to Europe is its inertia, its retreat into a culture of apathy and general relativism.
But are the refugees entering Europe not also offering themselves to become a cheap precarious workforce, in many cases at the expense of local workers, who react to this threat by joining anti-immigrant political parties? For most of the refugees, this will be the reality of their dream realized. The refugees are not just escaping from their war-torn homelands; they are also possessed by a certain dream. We can see again and again on our screens. Refugees in southern Italy make it clear that they don’t want to stay there - they mostly want to live in Scandinavian countries. And what about thousands camping around Calais who are not satisfied with France but are ready to risk their lives to enter the United Kingdom? And what about tens of thousands of refugees in Balkan countries who want to reach Germany at least? They declare this dream as their unconditional right, and demand from European authorities not only proper food and medical care but also the transportation to the place of their choice. There is something enigmatically utopian in this impossible demand: as if it is the duty of Europe to realize their dream, a dream which, incidentally, is out of reach to most of Europeans. How many South and East Europeans would also not prefer to live in Norway?
One can observe here the paradox of utopia: precisely when people find themselves in poverty, distress and danger, and one would expect that they would be satisfied by a minimum of safety and well-being, the absolute utopia explodes. The hard lesson for the refugees is that “there is no Norway,” even in Norway. They will have to learn to censor their dreams: Instead of chasing them in reality, they should focus on changing reality. One must thus broaden the perspective: Refugees are the price of global economy. In our global world, commodities circulate freely, but not people: new forms of apartheid are emerging...