Presentation of the project “The Europeans 2020-2030”, a collaboration between writer Arnold van Bruggen and photographer Rob Hornstra and presentation of their latest publications.
Our Ancestral Home is the story of a stunningly beautiful part of Europe, where centuries-old traditions live on, where a mysterious language is spoken, where picturesque houses and farms are passed down from generation to generation. It has always been so. But today, tourists and rich people from the capital have discovered this country. The locals are giving in to the huge sums of money paid by foreigners looking for a second home. “We have sold our country,” say the activists. But who can resist the laws of capitalism?
THE EUROPEANS
The publication Our Ancestral Home is a part of “The Europeans 2020 – 2030”, a collaboration between writer Arnold van Bruggen and photographer Rob Hornstra. Their previous collaboration, The Sochi Project, focused on the region surrounding the Russian resort of Sochi, where the Winter Olympics were held in 2014.
Spanning ten years, “The Europeans” is a search for today’s European as Europe goes through difficult times. The rise of nationalism and populism brings back the demons of the past. The emergence of authoritarian regimes threatens the political dream of a united and peaceful Europe, a dream that seems increasingly fragile.
Arnold van Bruggen and Rob Hornstra set out to document twenty regions of Europe over a period of ten years. Each period of work in a region concludes with an exhibition and the launch of an eponymous publication, presented in the place where they carried out their work. Our Ancestral Home is the result of a period of work in a region, somewhere in Europe.
With the support of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
