A graphic novel about the European Parliament, a manifesto for a European digital public space, photo essays from Kiev and south-west Spain, an essay by philosopher Alicja Gescinksa and infographics on European emotions. Common Ground, the European Cultural Foundation's annual free magazine, has just been published and tries to bring together the many different Europes we live in.
The magazine was launched on Europe Day at the Athenaeum Nieuwscentrum with contributions from Theresa Kuhn, full professor at the European Studies Capacity Group at the University of Amsterdam and academic director of the Amsterdam Centre for European Studies (ACES), Arnold van Bruggen, journalist, filmmaker and researcher who is working on The Europeans, a portrait of modern Europe since 2020, and André Wilkens, director of the European Cultural Foundation.
In his editorial, the ECF director writes about Common Ground's ambition to show that Europe's strength lies not in grand narratives or bureaucratic monoliths, but in its ability to listen, adapt and imagine. As André Wilkens writes this power “lives in libraries and poems, in street art and fashion karaoke, in connecting rivers and historical memory”.
“We have to act, with empathy and with imagination” writes André Wilkens. “We must reinvest in soft power—not as propaganda, but as practice. Culture is not a luxury. It is how Europe constantly learns to be European. The fairy tale is over. But the story continues. Let’s write it together".
#CommonGround2025
--
Photos: Cover-image by Max Slobodda, illustration by Kokopello.
