MY COUNTRY IS THE WORLD

The Exhibition De piramide van IJmuiden – I hear a new world was a manifestation against the fragmentation of the collective. The participating artists were challenged to think of alternative, future models that counterpart the existing tendency in which the collectivity of our future expectations is shattered in personal networks around our work and personal interests. For our contribution to the exhibition we focussed on the post war period in the Netherlands. These years were characterized by strict internal rationing and wage and price controls. Despite the problems, there was great public unity, idealism and a shared hope for a better future. The decade after the war had the potential for radical political change. One of these political movements was the Cosmopolitan ideology. This philosphy proclaimed a safer and better world but its momentum was never fully exploited. For the project ‘My country is the world’ we redesigned 5 post war propaganda posters with quotes from cosmopolitan thinkers as a proposal for an alternative historical scenario.