Why are all these words related? The Proto-Indo-European (PIE) language was spoken around 6000 years, somewhere on the border between Europe and Asia. Since then, the language has spread and split up into many different languages in Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia. Now, nearly half the world speaks an Indo-European language. Because all […]

Lucca Comics & Games announced the hosting of Amano Corpus Animae, Yoshitaka Amano's first European exhibition from November 13th, 2024 to March 1st, 2025.

I can still remember this postcard that I sent to many friends from Brussels over 10 years ago: Somebody's idea of stereotypes of European nations. It was even used in one of our English course books as a cue for student discussions on the topic. Stereotypes and their existence and possible harmfulness have often come up in our international school projects, too, most recently and strongly in our last Comenius project 'Dismantling stereotypes', due to be completed this spring. No wonder then that, this week, news about the Czech art installation by David Cerny caught my attention. I was going to introduce it to our Finnish-Spanish project team for discussion, as it sounded that it tackled exactly the topic we had been working on. This installation, called Entropa: Stereotypes are Barriers to be Demolished, was launched in the EU Council building in Brussels to mark the beginning of the 6-month Czech presidency of the EU. Initially, I though the map of Europe consisting of the different countries as unassembled pieces in a plastic modelling kit was ingenious. Also a marvellous example of European collaboration across borders, since to copy the text from the EU2009.cz website: Entropa is the joint work of 27 artists, each one from a different Member State. Each object depicts one Member State using common stereotypes or prejudices. The Presidency commissioned the artists without any restrictions and they were free to create any object they liked.Naturally, I first wanted to see how my country had been portrayed - this time there was Finland as a wooden floor with an elephant, a rhino and a hippo and a hunter with a rifle. In the official booklet about the installation, the Finnish artist , Joonas Tuominen, explains: "Finland is not a country of wood; no exotic animals live in Finland. Perhaps that's the way things are, perhaps it would be beautiful." Hmm, rather cryptic... I was slightly bemused by some of the other pieces, too, for example the UK's piece missing altogether. However, once I started searching for more background to this collaborative product, to my surprise, I found out that it had been a complete hoax, and actually been put together by David Cerny and two of his artist friends. All the other European artists listed in the booklet were nothing but the fictitious inventions of the Czech trio, who mentioned Monty Python's Flying Circus as one of their inspirations. They claimed that it would have been impossible to realize the piece as a collaboration of 27 artists with the time and financial constraints at hand, and that, in the end, they wanted to see if "Europe can laugh at itself". Obviously not, since official complaints have already been issued by some governments, followed by apologies by the artist and the Czech Prime Minister, and possibly even the removal of certain parts of the artwork that have been considered insulting. Questions about freedom of speech, democracy and censorship have also been raised. Certainly proves the powerful role of provocative art. As for the actual content, rather than showing the self-reflection of the nationality of 27 individual artists, it now boils down to a few Czechs' view of their fellow European member states. Highly interesting as a story, but disappointingly one-sided to initiate discussions about national stereotypes. PS. While writing this post, the information page about Entropa was deleted from the eu2009.cz site, and only the Czech text 'Zpráva nebyla publikována.' now remains in the above link. Let's see how long the fictitious booklet will remain online.

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Every European city has St. Tourist trap's cathedral, WWII memorial avenue, the single-syllable river, hateable new and lovable old bridges.

Though over three billion people speak an Indo-European language, researchers are not sure where the language family originated.

Alone begins with a brilliantly frightening concept. Overnight everyone disappears, and five children of varying ages awaken to discover this. It’s simple, effective and frightening, and earned The Vanishing 2007’s Angolême Festival Prize in the 9-12 youth category. We’re introduced to the children on the day before the disappearance, a glimpse into their lives informing […]

Understand how the current world economics was shaped in The Age of Imperialism. Use student activities at StoryboardThat to uncover this complicated history.

Información. Creadora del comic Voltron Omegaverse instagram aboklanceholamama Creadora: genelpan

Russian President Vladimir Putin wrote in an op-ed that "there is every reason to believe" chemical weapons were used "not by the Syrian Army, but by opposition forces." Nate Beeler thinks President Obama invited Putin's remarks, while Joe Heller isn't worried about their long-term impact.

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The world this week

Comic artist creates amazing infographic, which illustrates the ancient linguistic links between the world’s languages in the form of a magnificent tree.

Two charts and seventeen maps, showing how the languages of Britain and Ireland have changed since the Roman rule of Britannia ended 1600 years ago! First, check out this GIF I made! When most people think of the languages of Britain and Ireland, they probably think of English. It’s the language pretty much everybody speaks, […]