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Winkler: “Europe is interesting, moving and fascinating”

State Secretary Hans Winkler welcomes the 20,000th visitor to the “Image of Europe” exhibition

 “I consider it to be a great success as well as a sign of the level of interest in our history and in Europe that, only one month after it opened, the “Image of Europe” exhibition has already attracted its 20,000th visitor. The way it presents the history of our continent, but also the visionary insight into the future shown here, has proved to be far more attractive than we had expected. Those 20,000 people who have visited the exhibition in the past few weeks have proved in an impressive way that Europe is interesting, moving and fascinating”, State Secretary Hans Winkler was pleased to report.

“European history and culture have many facets. Being able to live as we do today in peace and security is without doubt a priceless achievement in our history. Maintaining and developing the European way of life are among the biggest challenges facing us today. Coping with these challenges will depend on stressing to all that Europe is working well and that we can achieve our aims only by combining our strengths. The interest in this exhibition gives grounds to be optimistic. I hope that many more visitors will take the opportunity to gain a glimpse into Europe’s future and its past", Winkler continued.

The exhibition, which is housed in a tent on the Heldenplatz square, runs until 2 July 2006 and is open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Entrance is free. Core elements of the exhibition are two mural collages, which give visitors an overview of the history of the European continent from the time of the dinosaurs to modern civilisation and present the history of the EU since the Second World War, as well as visions of the future of the EU.

Vienna is the second station of this Europe exhibition, which was conceived by Rem Koolhaas with the aid of his think tank AMO and has now been brought to Vienna for the Austrian Presidency of the EU. In 2001 the Dutch designer Rem Koolhaas was invited by the then President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, and the Belgian Prime Minister, Guy Verhofstadt, to prepare a visual presentation of Brussels, the newly proclaimed capital of Europe.  A marquee in the colours of all the flags of the EU countries was thereupon created, which was erected in Brussels and also housed an exhibition on Europe.