New European Bauhaus Festival
TransMedia Catalonia being interviewed by the European Research Executive Agency
The New European Bauhaus Festival took place on 9- 12 June 2022 both online in the form of an international conference and face-to-face at various locations around Brussels. Organised by the European Commission, it was the first ever festival dedicated to the New European Bauhaus (NEB), a creative and interdisciplinary initiative which connects the European Green Deal to our living spaces and experiences. Designed around three pillars, Forum, Fair and Fest; the event brought together people from all walks of life around Europe to explore, debate and shape a sustainable and inclusive future.
The Fair supplied an excellent meeting point for experts in a variety of diverse fields, allowing them to showcase their projects, from local citizen labs to pioneering research funded by EU programmes, such as Horizon Europe or prototypes that will make our lives easier and more sustainable. Partners in the Transmedia Catalonia research group (TMC) at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona were given a booth at Gare Maritime to present TRACTION and their ongoing European projects centred around the themes of migration and policy making, accessibility and cultural heritage.
TMC also held three workshops which were open to the public:
- Leave no one behind! Accessibility and user-centric design
- Let’s start changing the narrative! Migrant-led organisations in the political discussion
- Accessible Storytelling for social impact: how do we speak about migration?
In addition to the fair, the Forum hosted roundtables and TEDx style talks with high profile speakers. Several leading national politicians attended the event, such as Elke van den Brandt (Minister for Mobility in Belgium) and President Ursula von der Leyen, who framed the discussions from the European perspective.
The Festival featured more than 200 co-created Side events, in Brussels and over 20 other member states, with activities ranging from concerts to conferences to fully-fledged festivals. The Fest was a celebration of the NEB for everyone, with a programme appealing to a wide range of audiences; offering installations, music, dance and theatre – as well as scientific experiments, upcycling workshops, and much more.
Based on the original Bauhaus movement ideals upgraded to the challenges of the 21st century, the New European Bauhaus seeks to revolutionise the relationships between different disciplines. In the words of President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, it is a “new cultural project for Europe”. After this first pilot edition, the festival should travel in years to come to other European cities to spread awareness of the movement to all the corners of the European Union.
