EUROPE’S FUTURE – LIFE-BOATS FOR EUROPE
Why is Life-boats so important as a shared European project?
by Inger Grund Petersen

EUROPE’S FUTURE – LIFE-BOATS FOR EUROPE
Why is Life-boats so important as a shared European project?
by Inger Grund Petersen
EUROPE’S FUTURE – RETHINK
LIFE-BOATS FOR EUROPE
When war and unrest prevail, it has often been the woman – the mother, sister, and daughter – who has become the reconciling and unifying force, appealing for peace, forgiveness, and …
WHY IS LIFE-BOATS SO IMPORTANT AS A SHARED EUROPEAN PROJECT?
On March 25 – the 60th anniversary of the European Community – Esteban González Pons, Spanish Member of the European Parliament, took the floor and spoke powerfully to his colleagues:
“Europe is NOT merely a market – Europe is the will to live together. To leave the EU is not simply to leave a market, but to abandon the DREAMS WE SHARE.”
He went on: Europe stands more alone than ever in a globalized world – squeezed between Putin’s tanks to the east, Trump’s wall to the west, rising populism to the north, and refugee flows from the south. There is no alternative to Europe. On the contrary, a united Europe is the guarantor of peace, democracy, and human rights. “We have failed to explain this to the people,” he continued, “but outside the EU it is colder than cold, and Brexit is the most foolish and selfish British act since they defended the freedom of Europe’s nations with blood, sweat and tears during the most devastating war in our continent’s history.”
The short video of González Pons’ speech has been shared more than 6 million times on Facebook, and it expresses a crucial point that many politicians seem to have forgotten:
In the public mind, the EU has come to mean primarily trade, economy, and the free movement of capital, goods, and people across open borders – yes – but also restrictive legislation. So, when the financial crisis caused real difficulties and new flows of refugees and large-scale migration demanded new measures regarding open borders, many member states lost faith in the EU’s ability to solve these problems together. This has manifested itself concretely in Brexit, but also in the resurgence of nationalist tendencies across Europe.
That is why it is time to rethink the foundation and focus of European cooperation. It must be about far more than economy and security. Once again we must return to the fundamental values of human rights, equality before the law, freedom of the press, peace, the environment, and sustainable production as shared European values in an unstable political landscape. And here, art, literature, and the humanities can play a vital role for the future.
RETHINK
As European Capital of Culture in 2017, Aarhus placed “Rethink” at the very top of the agenda, as the guiding principle for all cultural activities of the year. Aarhus passes the baton forward in 2018 to Europe’s cities with Life-boats – a floating art installation that is at once a testimony to what binds us together – DREAMS, LIFE, and MEMORIES – and a cultural caravan created in dialogue with the people it encounters along its journey.
ART, CULTURE, AND DIALOGUE: the glue of community, enabling us to see strength in differences.
Already in 2014, 20 leading European artists, researchers, and intellectuals issued – at the initiative of Morten Løkkegaard – a charter calling for a New European Renaissance, as part of the New Narrative for Europe project.
“We must bring art and science into the political process to rebuild trust in a Europe in crisis, plagued by disillusionment and scepticism toward the EU. In short, we need a new European Renaissance.”
Since then Brexit has occurred, making the need for Europe’s humanistic and interpersonal exchange of experiences greater than ever. Europe, they argued, needs a new societal paradigm shift – recalling the revolutionary thinkers of the 15th and 16th centuries, when society, science, and art together laid the foundations of our knowledge-based economy and society. Today such a shift must help position Europe as a global champion of sustainable development, protecting not only biodiversity but also cultural diversity and pluralism.
This is precisely the European reality that Life-boats seeks to address.
LIFE-BOATS – A CULTURAL CARAVAN
Life-boats responds to a popular need for a renewed focus – one that celebrates diversity and creativity as the axis of a new, innovative, and sustainable Europe.
As vessels of shared dreams, lives, and vital experiences – expressed through a female perspective on life, fundamental expressions of existence, and close human relations – they sail along Europe’s waterways as an open invitation to dialogue. The project is not, at its core, a feminist project, but rather an art project with a strong female perspective.
The three ships are a portrait of woman at three stages of life:
• My Ship is Loaded with Longing (the young woman)
• My Ship is Loaded with Life (the pregnant woman)
• My Ship is Loaded with Memories (the ageing woman)
Each is constructed as a riverboat, combining sculpture, engineering, and artistic narrative. Audiences can board them, explore their inner installations, and contribute to the evolving story – including sealed treasure chests filled with personal contributions of longing, life, and memory.
Like a cultural caravan, Life-boats will be continuously reshaped through encounters with local communities, artists, and schoolchildren along the way. In every port, young artists, musicians, and dancers are invited to contribute – ensuring that the ships become platforms for cultural exchange, artistic growth, and intergenerational dialogue.
A EUROPEAN RENAISSANCE THROUGH ART
As the 2014 charter stated:
• Beyond financial and economic regulation, Europe’s institutions need a renewed focus on art, the humanities, and science as vital sources of creative surplus.
• Europe requires art as a radical form of education, inspiring new ways of life and fostering recognition of diversity.
• Europe must protect both tangible and intangible heritage – stories not just of local or national identity, but of what it has meant to be European over time – strengthening cohesion among its citizens.
Life-boats embodies this vision. It is the world’s first travelling sculpture fleet, appealing across all ages with a simple yet profound reminder: We are all in the same boat – and there is far more that unites us than divides us.