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My presentation
analyses the individual
meanings and the overall impact of European
Union -related representations (below, eurosigns) in the city scenery of Brussels. With eurosigns I mean business signs, advertisements, logos, hoardings, window displays, and information campaign material
that make use of at least
one of the institutional symbols of the European Union as a signifier. A eurosign must contain a modification of the blue flag of European
union with its twelve golden stars (the eurostars), the map of
Europe with EU member states highlighted, the attribute “eur(o)”
or the letter €), or some other visual element (semi-)officially endorsed by the EU.
Eurosigns are ubiquitous in Brussels.
They range from the official,
hegemonic branding of the EU institutions
to the quaint charm of hand painted
signs of artisans and small entrepreneurs. Both the official
and private use of eurosigns tap into the
resources of the EU as a superbrand but the unofficial
narratives are neither
as carefully branded nor as effectively disseminated as official
PR-material for the European Union. Still, the mixed group of entrepreneurs selling computers, food, jewellery, and trips to
other continents under the word
or sign of“euro” or some
visual modification of the official EU- flag has truly set its mark
on the urban landscape and its mediated
space. Examples of grass root
design include e.g. Night shop Euro-Bangla, and Euro phone, selling cheap phone calls outside Europe.
I use photographs by myself and a multinational group of volunteer “eurosignspotters” to dissect the concept of Europe, and to raise questions
about mediated space, identity politics and supranational image making. The methodology of my study draws
on histories “from
below”, urban studies and the ethnographic tradition. I would call my approach
as modern urban archaeology, too, because it characterises the interdisciplinary nature of my
attempt to put together a mosaic of urban
values. This approach addresses questions about how people fashion their environments to create meanings about who and
where they are in the world, and how, in the process, they communicate feelings of belonging and attachment.
In multilingual Europe, visual discourse
may function as a cross-culturally
strategic form of communication, thanks in part to its perceptual
and iconic availability. From this perspective the phenomenon of private eurosigns try - in their own way
– to bridge the gap between
the EU institutions and the civil society.
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