Project Heracles in Bruxelles

Domus accepts the European Parliament’s invitation to exhibit the 200 projects of Domus’s call for ideas – Project Heracles, that was held in 2011.

Project Heracles a Bruxelles
In May 2011 – at the height of the Arab Spring and amid a wave of tragic immigrant shipwrecks that still continue today around Italy’s coasts – Domus invited its readers to participate in the call for ideas titled Project Heracles, asking them to send in imaginative projects capable of connecting Europe and Africa across the 14 kilometres of the Strait of Gibraltar.
Project Heracles a Bruxelles
In apertura cartolina di Vera Mc Alley; qui sopra: Airship+Cable car, Zhiguo Pan
In a vast and impassioned response, architects, designers, students and artists from all over the world  submitted their projects on a simple postcard, with their proposal on one side and a brief description, message or statement on the other. The ideas ranged from a straightforward cable railway to the great floating Mediterranean city. Many of the solutions proved to be highly poetic, inspiring, creative or provocative, as well as offering a starting point for social, philosophical, structural and political reflection.
The initiative was welcomed by exponents from the world of culture and architecture: Saskia Sassen, Bruce Sterling, Carson Chan, Geoff Manaugh, Elisa Poli, and the Belgian philosophers Lieven De Cauter and Dieter Lesage (the first to discuss the symbolic value of a Eurafrican bridge) have also made a personal selection of projects. (See the selection here)
Project Heracles a Bruxelles
Antonia Cruz Guadalupe

On the tide of this interest, in the July 2011 issue of Domus, the then editor-in-chief Joseph Grima published an open letter to the President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy: an incitement to develop a plan for an entrance to Europe on the Eurafrican border.

Due to its major political, social and economic implications, the call for ideas entered the complex debate regarding the need to close the gap between Europe and Africa, abandoning the concept of “Euro-fortification” to establish a more hospitable and constructive outlook for people, ideas, innovation and experimentation between the two continents.

As proof that this subject continues to be immensely relevant and sorely alive, this year Domus received an invitation to exhibit Project Heracles at the European Parliament in Brussels, at the request of the MEPs Miguel Portas and Marisa Matias, from the Portuguese Left Bloc party and the parliamentary group GUE/NGL.

In an original and participatory exhibition design, the postcards will be printed in hundreds of copies and displayed on revolving stands, so that visitors will not only be able to view the exhibition, but also take their favourite projects away with them.

Project Heracles a Bruxelles
Light, Fernanda Ahumada de Toledo


Project Heracles
Exhibition design: Joseph Grima, Marco Ferrari


17 December 2013
European Parliament
Building Altiero Spinelli
Place du Luxembourg, Bruxelles

During the opening Joseph Grima will discuss the topic with Lieven De Cauter and Dieter Lesage, inspiring philosophers of the call.

Entrance is reserved for the accredited press together with MEPs, officials and staff of the European Parliament

 

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