Program - incoming

Filip Berte (Belgium)
EUTOPIE – Collective Memory Mass Grave

Since 2006 the Belgian architect and painter Filip Berte has been constructing a symbolic building – the house of Eutopie. The visual project is based on a geographical, political, historical, and social study and also encompasses Berte’s travel experiences. The aim of the project is artistically to assess the state of contemporary Europe – feel out its critical areas and point out the paradoxes and unsolved and perhaps even unsolvable issues. Berte’s artistic reflection on Europe takes the form of five installations that can function independently or together as one integral architectural unit. Of these five (Protected Landscape, Collective Memory Mass Grave, The Graveyard, Blue Room and White Space / Mirror) Berte is exhibiting Collective Memory Mass Grave in Prague, which forms the most substantial part of the project. This is a structured exhibition of natural and urban catastrophes, war conflicts, the consequences of violent behaviour, in short, everything, whether we like it or not, that forms part of our European collective memory. Filip Berte refuses to shut out these unpleasant memories; they, after all, are a part of the foundation of our reality.
Filip Berte (1976) completed his studies in architecture at the Sint-Lucas Institute (WENK) in Ghent in 1999. In 1988–1997 he studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent. Later he began working for the architectural studio NERO. He has also worked with the industrial designer Stijn Roodnat/Droog Design, the set designer Bart Clement, the architect Dirk Coopman, and the interior designer Maarten Van Severen. Alongside activities in the field of architecture he also devotes himself to travel and has visited, among other places, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, and Kosovo, and has captured his experiences of these places in painting. He is interested in the organisation of the living space in post-war and post-communist countries.
More info: http://www.eutopia.be/cmmg

Superted by: Arts and Theatre Institut, Ministry of Culture of Czech Republic, City Council, Flemish Goverment in Prague

Media partner: Czech TV