V&A’s Collecting Europe responds to Brexit with artist commissions

The Victoria and Albert Museum in London launched Collecting Europe, a series of installations, performances, workshops, and talks running until February 7, 2017, in response to the UK's vote to leave the European Union. The project features artists including Rosa Barba, Constant Dullaart, Jasleen Kaur, Remco Torenbosch, and Onkar Kular with Common Initiative. Torenbosch fragmented Beethoven's Ode to Joy by recording individual orchestra instruments. Kular and Common Initiative's installation issues a fictional passport for anyone to enroll in 'Europa,' a metapolitical project accessible only online. The initiative was one of the last projects of outgoing director Martin Roth, who resigned after the referendum, stating it would destroy 'the future of our children.' His successor, Tristram Hunt, a Labour MP and historian, now leads the museum amid uncertain political boundaries. The event reflects the museum's critical stance on Brexit, engaging with themes of utopia, dystopia, realpolitik, and contemporary citizenship.