Europe is less the name of a continent than an historical, cultural, political, and spiritual agreement. Populist campaigns, but also political decisions have challenged civil society’s trust in the solidarity of European societies both with each other and with people in distress throughout the world. The artworks in the exhibition EUROPE UNDER CONSTRUCTION address individual aspects of the contradictory experiences of a changing cultural identity in Europe from highly individual points of view. The artistic narratives in the show engage with current and historical experiences of flight and global migration. Others present abstract and documentary images for the ‘anti-political’ movements and the painful processes at the fringes of Europe under construction: The creation of special zones and closed camps, the fortifications of external borders and arson attacks on refugee shelters.

Against the background of these contradictory impressions and the experience of complexity, from which there appears to be no rapid way out, the exhibition also features constructive examples of Europe under construction in Dresden: Not only, but especially in the past one and a half years, a discourse on migration as a positive development potential of urban society has emerged.

In workshops integrated in the exhibition at the Kunsthaus Dresden, initiatives in Dresden will transform the life plans of people with and without a migrant background into a public planning process together with the Berlin-based collective constructlab and the group MAiZ from Linz, as well as other experts.