FFF3 | Domo de Eŭropa Historio en ekzilo (House of European History in Exile)

“Domo de Eŭropa Historio en Ekzilo (‘House of European History in Exile’) takes you more than half a century back in time to the early twenty-first century. Although little-studied, this period nevertheless provided the breeding-ground for the sweeping changes that were to take place during our century. It was a remarkable era, characterised by Integration and Harmonisation. Blessed by the Long Peace. Overshadowed by the Great Recession. Back when national borders were blurred and people everywhere used a single currency called the ‘euro’. Back when Brussels, not Warsaw, lay at the beating heart of the old continent. The first international exhibition on life in the former European Union."

Engaged with the EU’s crisis of confidence since 2013, having traveled from Brussels to Rotterdam and Vienna, Belgian artist Thomas Bellinck’s “Domo de Eŭropa Historio en Ekzilo” has anticipated recent developments. Having spent the past few months living and researching in Greece, as well as Germany, Bellinck has conceived of a new version of the exhibition especially for Athens and Wiesbaden. In his quaint, uncanny museum, rife with dusty maps and decaying artifacts, Bellinck stages a futuristic history of the present with ample black humor. Presenting the EU as a brief historical intermezzo, his sharply critical, yet loving installation teleports its audience to a dystopia which somehow looks oddly familiar.