Luxembourg, 27 octobre 2014
Université de Luxembourg
Master en Histoire Europeenne Contemporaine
Entretien avec M. Prof. Wolfram Kaiser, Université de Portsmouth
[E.C.] Good morning Mr. Prof. Kaiser, concerning the presentation of the two projects you have shown us today, which are, mostly offline concepts, do you think that the online dimension will be the necessary next step to narrate history?
[W.K.] I think that the online dimension will be necessary for these projects which desire to address to every one across the world. For instance, not everybody could go to a museum in Brussels, so if we develop an online portal and an online cooperation with different organizations, such as other museums, it would be possible to guarantee the access to the natation of European history to everyone.
[E.C.] Both the “House of the European History”, and the “New Narrative for Europe” run under respectively the European Parliament and the European Commission. In your opinion, how much these institutions influence the choice on what to narrate?
[W.K.] European Institutions take care about these two projects and both in the “House of the European History” and in the “New narrative for Europe” they decided to leave the organization of the exhibitions to a Cultural Committee in order to create a pan European project focused on the subjects of XX century: political history and everyday life, obviously under an institutional length.
[J.L.]Let’s face it. There are plenty of Europeans who don’t care for the European Union or the European project. Wouldn’t the EU-isation of parts of regional and national museums further alienate those people from the European project, which is the exact opposite of what the EU-isation is trying to achieve?
[W.K.] A new focus on the EU-isation would be especially detrimental – or beneficial – for little children, who are still a blank canvas and more impressionable than anyone else, and often go on field trips or spend time in museums . Think Catcher in the Rye or something similar. Right or wrong, wouldn’t it be better to leave national museums as they are and leave people to do their own research on European subjects? I believe that would be a robust and elegant resolution to the whole thing.