ANOTHER EUROPE: OUTDOOR PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION

The exhibition is organized by the Austrian Cultural Forum of London in cooperation with the European Commission Representation in the United Kingdom and EUNIC at one of London's most iconic landmarks, King's Cross. The exhibition is going to tour around Europe.

To celebrate the European Year of Cultural Heritage and Austria’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the Austrian Cultural Forum London in collaboration with the Representation of the European Commission in the UK and EUNIC (European Union National Institutes of Culture) presented Another Europe, an outdoor exhibition of photographs, around the Kings Cross area of London, exploring the diversity of European Heritage.

Another Europe featured 28 photographs, one from each EU Member-State, mounted on specially designed concrete benches dispersed around London’s King’s Cross area. The photographers represented a wide range of photographic practices and were a mixture of established and emerging talents. Together they voiced themes and influences we all recognise as part of our cultural heritage from concrete manifestations such as monuments, buildings and sites to the more ephemeral social aspects such as childhood, fairytales, theatre, landscape, conflict, work, celebration, family, memories, literature and traditions.

Images of NATO observation towers by Belgian photographer Els van den Meerschcontrast with those of a wedding ceremony in Greece by George Tatakis, Petra Lajdova’s striking portrait of a woman in traditional Slovakian clothing, Marketa Luskacova’s Czech carnival scenes or the installation of a Jeff Koons sculpture at Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum by Henk Wildschut. Italian photographer Massimo Vitali, famous for his heat-infused Mediterranean beach scenes, has photographed the Rome Forum while Simon Roberts(UK)

brought us a very British beach scene of the Charles Dickens celebration at Broadstairs

“The Kings Cross / St Pancras area, home to the Eurostar, it is often referred to as the UK’s ‘European Gateway’. This was the ideal space to celebrate a common European heritage while at the same time appreciate the diversity of our EU community.”

“The symbolism of this exhibition will have escaped few. It was an example of one of the many forms of cooperation which has been fostered between the states of the EU over decades. In this the European Year of Cultural heritage we have brought to London a showcase of European photographic talent. Many of the artists whose work was exhibited will have been well known, others less so however, they have all contributed their interpretation of cultural heritage. This focuses not just on the physical manifestations of cultural heritage but also on the way in which this is transmitted. The work illustrated common themes but also highlighted the particularities which make up Europe’s rich cultural heritage.” Hamish Park, curator.

The bench is an object normally associated with outdoor and park life but in the exhibition they became the bases for the photographs displayed. Using them as the base of a photography exhibition presents us with a unique opportunity to celebrate European heritage while providing the public with a space to rest and recover from fast-paced city life. This project used these moments of ‘retreat’ to encourage the reflection of a shared common cultural heritage.

George Tatakis is a photographer based in Athens who makes images utilising customs and traditional events mainly in Greece. His images are published internationally, including National Geographic, Leica magazines, fstoppers and others.

Together with three other partners, they have founded the Reflex Photographers' cooperative and the web application pculiar.com where the user can search and browse such events, mainly in Greece and the rest of the world.