24-25 May 2008
EF Kunsttour
1 May 2008
EF Euromayday
21 November 2007
Does a progressive Euregionalism exist?
6 July 2007
Mapping the Euregion
14 June 2007
A flag for the Euregion
23 - 25 novembre 2006
L'Eurégion en tant qu'espace public-politique
16. - 18. November 2006
Die Euregio als ein raum der Übertretung
22 June 2006
The Euregion as economic opportunity
21 June 2006
The Euregion as global knot
Jozua Zaagman
It is only by walking and sleeping along the inner borders of the Euregion Meuse-Rhine that you realise that it is nothing but a non-entity. Only through such an automatic, mindless ritual one can fully understand the essence of the Euregion Meuse-Rhine’s borders as well as their immediate surroundings, an essence which is best defined in terms of their utter emptiness.
Jozua Zaagman is researcher at the Design department of the Jan van Eyck Academy.
Jozua Zaagman
In the Euregion Meuse-Rhine an entire tourist industry exclusively focuses on the elderly and exploits their immobile state by providing a total universe of enjoyment. I was struck by the ignorance of this group with regard to the border situation. In Monschau the elderly were literally hanging out at the border without being aware of it. I see this as an indication of how people in the Euregion Meuse-Rhine transgress borders every day without being conscious of it.
Jozua Zaagman is researcher at the Design department of the Jan van Eyck Academy..
Wim Cuyvers
From the immobility of the inhabitants on the campsites in the Euregion, I deduce a process that I call a self-indicted reduction of space. By this I meant that once they arrive at the campsite, people give up their normal way of life and become as a fish in a fishbowl that is not allowed to grow, strictly limiting their social exchanges to the campsites’ premises. This immobility of the residents of the campsites in the Euregion Meuse-Rhine is symptomatic for the region as a whole: the boredom of the campsite correlates with the boredom of the Euregion, it is not an exception.
Wim Cuyvers is an architect and publicist and advising researcher at Design department of the Jan van Eyck Academy.
Wim Cuyvers
In the Euregion Meuse-Rhine there is this well-known place: the pilgrimage village Banneux Notre-Dame. While this is clearly an insignificant village, the presence of a shrine that is said to possess mythical powers, attracts many visitors. This is symptomatic for the way in which the Euregion Meuse-Rhine functions as a whole: it is as a religion, an ideology, a common ritual. The clearest example of this ritualistic character of the Euregion Meuse-Rhine is the leisure activity organised by the tourism departments of the respective countries. The constant encouragement and mobilization is meant to transform an insignificant, undefined place that the Euregion Meuse-Rhine is into an exciting, dynamic region.
Wim Cuyvers is an architect and publicist and advising researcher at Design department of the Jan van Eyck Academy.
Wim Cuyvers
The Euregion Meuse-Rhine is a good place to reduce all illusions. When one eliminates all cognitive data and sticks to the rule to walk along its borders whatever it takes, one walks to a higher degree. It allows one to become conscious of the futility of the Euregion Meuse-Rhine and its borders. Regions are defined by their centres and their outer borders; the centre of the Euregion Meuse-Rhine is an insignificant border that is both a reality and illusion.
Wim Cuyvers is an architect and publicist and advising researcher at Design department of the Jan van Eyck Academy.
Florian de Visser, Jan van Hoof, Pieter Scheer and Dolf Robertus
Our research showed how the majority of the campsite dwellers in the Euregion Meuse-Rhine stayed in their own country. More significant was the fact that there was hardly any foreigner from countries outside of the Euregion Meuse-Rhine. Apart from some Polish and English workers at ‘Mooi Bemelen’ and ‘Maasvallei’ we didn’t find one single tourist from outside the Euregion Meuse-Rhine.
Florian de Visser, Jan van Hoof, Pieter Scheer and Dolf Robertus are students from the Public Space department of the Design Academy in Eindhoven.
Florian de Visser, Jan van Hoof, Pieter Scheer and Dolf Robertus
The main outcome of our research was that the people staying at the Euregion’s campsites hardly move at all and do not want to move. What these people desire is simply to ‘do nothing’. Their lives are organized so as to enjoy the peace and quiet at these campsites. This resistance to mobility was especially obvious at campsite Faulenbruch. Due to a total absence of movement for several hours on end, we ended up with completely blank pages.
Florian de Visser, Jan van Hoof, Pieter Scheer and Dolf Robertus are students from the Public Space department of the Design Academy in Eindhoven.
Jacqueline Schoemaker
In the Euregion Meuse-Rhine there is a disturbing lack of a political or public authority that is able to transcend the murky sphere of the economy, in which half-legal social and economic bodies establish vague bonds and compete perpetually. In the Euregion Meuse-Rhine this sphere of politics seems to have merged with the economy. The old hierarchy seems to be turned upside-down when deputies themselves already admit that the Euregional Council is nothing but an impotent organising body, guided by economic forces and local communities. What was formerly kept from the public view now not only operates in full view, but is also presented as proof of its democratic character: the Euregional Council operates in constant and close contact with all social and economic powers in the Euregion Meuse-Rhine.
Jacqueline Schoemaker is a researcher at the Design department of the Jan van Eyck Academy.
It is only by walking and sleeping along the inner borders of the Euregion Meuse-Rhine that you realise that it is nothing but a non-entity. Only through such an automatic, mindless ritual one can fully understand the essence of the Euregion Meuse-Rhine’s borders as well as their immediate surroundings, an essence which is best defined in terms of their utter emptiness.
Jozua Zaagman is researcher at the Design department of the Jan van Eyck Academy.
Jozua Zaagman
In the Euregion Meuse-Rhine an entire tourist industry exclusively focuses on the elderly and exploits their immobile state by providing a total universe of enjoyment. I was struck by the ignorance of this group with regard to the border situation. In Monschau the elderly were literally hanging out at the border without being aware of it. I see this as an indication of how people in the Euregion Meuse-Rhine transgress borders every day without being conscious of it.
Jozua Zaagman is researcher at the Design department of the Jan van Eyck Academy..
Wim Cuyvers
From the immobility of the inhabitants on the campsites in the Euregion, I deduce a process that I call a self-indicted reduction of space. By this I meant that once they arrive at the campsite, people give up their normal way of life and become as a fish in a fishbowl that is not allowed to grow, strictly limiting their social exchanges to the campsites’ premises. This immobility of the residents of the campsites in the Euregion Meuse-Rhine is symptomatic for the region as a whole: the boredom of the campsite correlates with the boredom of the Euregion, it is not an exception.
Wim Cuyvers is an architect and publicist and advising researcher at Design department of the Jan van Eyck Academy.
Wim Cuyvers
In the Euregion Meuse-Rhine there is this well-known place: the pilgrimage village Banneux Notre-Dame. While this is clearly an insignificant village, the presence of a shrine that is said to possess mythical powers, attracts many visitors. This is symptomatic for the way in which the Euregion Meuse-Rhine functions as a whole: it is as a religion, an ideology, a common ritual. The clearest example of this ritualistic character of the Euregion Meuse-Rhine is the leisure activity organised by the tourism departments of the respective countries. The constant encouragement and mobilization is meant to transform an insignificant, undefined place that the Euregion Meuse-Rhine is into an exciting, dynamic region.
Wim Cuyvers is an architect and publicist and advising researcher at Design department of the Jan van Eyck Academy.
Wim Cuyvers
The Euregion Meuse-Rhine is a good place to reduce all illusions. When one eliminates all cognitive data and sticks to the rule to walk along its borders whatever it takes, one walks to a higher degree. It allows one to become conscious of the futility of the Euregion Meuse-Rhine and its borders. Regions are defined by their centres and their outer borders; the centre of the Euregion Meuse-Rhine is an insignificant border that is both a reality and illusion.
Wim Cuyvers is an architect and publicist and advising researcher at Design department of the Jan van Eyck Academy.
Florian de Visser, Jan van Hoof, Pieter Scheer and Dolf Robertus
Our research showed how the majority of the campsite dwellers in the Euregion Meuse-Rhine stayed in their own country. More significant was the fact that there was hardly any foreigner from countries outside of the Euregion Meuse-Rhine. Apart from some Polish and English workers at ‘Mooi Bemelen’ and ‘Maasvallei’ we didn’t find one single tourist from outside the Euregion Meuse-Rhine.
Florian de Visser, Jan van Hoof, Pieter Scheer and Dolf Robertus are students from the Public Space department of the Design Academy in Eindhoven.
Florian de Visser, Jan van Hoof, Pieter Scheer and Dolf Robertus
The main outcome of our research was that the people staying at the Euregion’s campsites hardly move at all and do not want to move. What these people desire is simply to ‘do nothing’. Their lives are organized so as to enjoy the peace and quiet at these campsites. This resistance to mobility was especially obvious at campsite Faulenbruch. Due to a total absence of movement for several hours on end, we ended up with completely blank pages.
Florian de Visser, Jan van Hoof, Pieter Scheer and Dolf Robertus are students from the Public Space department of the Design Academy in Eindhoven.
Jacqueline Schoemaker
In the Euregion Meuse-Rhine there is a disturbing lack of a political or public authority that is able to transcend the murky sphere of the economy, in which half-legal social and economic bodies establish vague bonds and compete perpetually. In the Euregion Meuse-Rhine this sphere of politics seems to have merged with the economy. The old hierarchy seems to be turned upside-down when deputies themselves already admit that the Euregional Council is nothing but an impotent organising body, guided by economic forces and local communities. What was formerly kept from the public view now not only operates in full view, but is also presented as proof of its democratic character: the Euregional Council operates in constant and close contact with all social and economic powers in the Euregion Meuse-Rhine.
Jacqueline Schoemaker is a researcher at the Design department of the Jan van Eyck Academy.
First Euregio Meuse-Rhine Democracy Awards awarded (19-5-08)
On May 24th 2008, during the EF KunstTour, the first two Euregion Meuse-Rhine Democracy Awards will be officially handed out to Wim Cuyvers of the project Traces of Autism: Wander Research in the Euregion Meuse-Rhine and to Saskia Gorgels-Lindelauf of the KvK Limburg. Read the press announcement.EF on Euromayday Parade Aachen (14-4-08)
On May 1st, the EF will organize a mobile forum during the Euromayday Parade in Aachen, which is organized on occasion of the awarding of the Karlspreis to Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy.
Weekend of Euregional debates during Kunsttour 2008 (14-4-08)
On Saturday the 24st of May, the EF will organize a full day of debates, interviews and live columns in the Jan van Eyck Academy as part of the Kunsttour (art fair) 2008 in Maastricht. The gravitational point of the event will be a House of Commons (Lagerhuis) in which Euregional issues will be discussed and voted on. EF aims at the people of the Euregion (1-1-08)
On January 1st, the EF launched its new campaign for the year 2008 with the motto: The EF comes to the people of the Euregion Meuse-Rhine!. After two years of expert meetings, the EF will now organize a series of popular events in which the citizens and users of the Euregion Meuse-Rhine will occupy centre stage. Click here to read the press release.