The conference "Borders and Otherness", prepared by the Council of Europe and the European Institute of the Cultural Routes, was held in Strasbourg in April 1999. It brought together many intellectuals, some of them authors of the texts of the " Bridge of Europe ".

"To address the question of borders is to meet what separates as much as what links". (Raymond Weber)

crossing glances

Considering the richness of the texts produced for artistic installation on the Bridge of Europe, the idea of this conference imposed itself as a way of furthering them, so that they can explain and cross glances. They could confront their points of view, their manner of perceiving Europe as a common space with moving borders.

During three round tables, these authors joined other intellectuals for whom Europe is also a reality. To support the play with identities, the calling into question of the obvious, the interpellation of the imaginary, the conference adopted an open but geographically oriented form. Indeed, the speakers of each round table were divided according to their geo-cultural sphere of origin, while the moderator came from a different sphere.

in the south, the mediterranean, cradle of another europe

The Mediterranean is a privileged field of experimentation. Its role in history, its slightly exacerbated and multiple identity, its urbanity make of it the possible cradle of another Europe, a laboratory of otherness and humanity. As the inscription written by Jean-Pierre Vernant for the Bridge of Europe says, the Mediterranean, recipient of hellenism, is par excellence the place of "the bridge man", in which the ancient Greeks saw the two antagonistic and inseparable divinities, Hermes and Hestia, those who create the two banks of the other and the same.

in the east, new borders, for which states, for which europe?

Often borders symbolise fear of the other, fear of otherness and are eternally present in the heads as abstract and subjective notions; their role cannot change without a change of mentalities. The artistic intervention carried out through The Bridge of Europe is obviously an ideal example of the result of the evolution of mentalities. It is a field of possibilities, which will however still take time before it can be cultivated in all Europe, and in particular in the East, where borders are heavily imprinted on collective imagination.

in the North, the border as experiment, otherness as practice

In the North geographical conditions model another approach to the border: generally, they are made of water and ice, sometimes of complete loneliness in the Far North. Today still, the idea of making a "common boat" remains at the basis of the relations across Northern European borders. The experience of the North shows that it is possible to advance towards a perception different from the type of the border and its function.

current borders

Taking into account the geopolitical situation in the spring of 1999, the debates were naturally directed towards the Yugoslav conflict, which, in a dramatic way, falls under the problem of borders and otherness. At the end of this conference, a common text was put together and discussed by this community of authors brought together around the questions of bridge and borders. This text required that the international community act quickly to assist the Kosovo refugees. It proposed the need for setting up as fast as possible socio-educational and socio-cultural assistance, so as to create a vision of a different world, in particular for children, one in which each can live in peace, a world "where life continues".

This text, discussed at length by conference participants, could not lead to consensus, standing as proof of the difficulties of overcoming borders. However, it showed the need for dialogue and exchange, for respect of the perception of the other. Conflict is not necessarily negative; treated in a non violent and creative way, it can contribute to overcoming antagonisms in order to implement a real dialogue across borders.

quotations

"Culture does not admit borders and walls (...). It is precisely what transcends them, as it transcends time and space". (Elie Wiesel)

"Only an assumed experience, with its shades and its lights, gives meaning to the courage to face the dangers of crossing". (Vitalie Ciobanu - South round table)

"One needs a large deposit of dreams to make a bridge". (Václav Jamek - East round table)

"The hardest of borders is fear". (Tacite, quoted by Predrag Matrejevitch - North round table)

"The path from me to me passes through the other". (Heidegger)

The discovery of otherness "is that of a rapport, not of a barrier". (Claude Lévi-Strauss)

"The thirst for otherness concerns the identity of Europe". (Andrei Pleşu)

"To the imaginary single-root identity let us substitute the imaginary relation identity". (Edouard Glissant)