The Same for Everyone

This publication accompanied the major programme of newly commissioned artworks developed for Aarhus 2017 European Capital of Culture under the artistic direction of curator Juliana Engberg. Bringing together a wide range of international contemporary artists, filmmakers, composers, and performers, the book documents a series of ambitious site-specific commissions that examined questions of democracy, identity, migration, memory, belief systems, and the future of European cultural belonging.

Featuring contributions and projects by artists including Jasmina Cibic, Angelika Messiti, Julian Rosefeldt, Yael Bartana, Michael Karikis, Barbara Kruger, and Nathan Coley, the publication reflects on the role of artistic practice within the social and political landscape of contemporary Europe. The commissions engaged public space, architecture, sound, film, installation, and participatory formats to address the tensions between local histories and broader transnational narratives.

Conceived within the context of the European Capital of Culture programme, the publication positions art as a critical platform for collective reflection during a period marked by political fragmentation, nationalism, ecological uncertainty, and shifting cultural identities. Rather than presenting culture as celebratory spectacle alone, many of the featured works approached Europe itself as a contested and unstable project, foregrounding questions of belonging, governance, representation, and social responsibility.

Through essays, visual documentation, and artist texts, the book maps a temporary constellation of artistic interventions that transformed Aarhus and the surrounding region into a site for dialogue between contemporary art and civic imagination.