Alter Ego

Where is Europe? Who is Europe? What is a European? Whom do we actually address when we speak of 'our fellow Europeans'? We know that Europe is something entirely different from the European Union as an administrative entity. But the present and future enlargement of the EU will create new borders, with new exclusions. This again means waiting rooms, velvet curtains, and iron-like walls. In the future as in the past, the individual European experience may be contradicted by the actual EU borders. Alter Ego presents twenty perspectives on Europe and its other(s), from both inside and outside the EU, from the acceding states and from the new neighbour countries. Writers, poets, scientists, artists, and politicians whose life and work are indistinguishable from Europe and yet often offer the vantage point of an outsider. Twenty individuals who by virtue of their talent, craft or profession are seasoned mediators between various milieus, backgrounds, and languages. Their stories make Europe palpable on the individual level.