The Treaty of Utrecht in the Autumn

WHAT’S ON THE AGENDA?

A TASTE OF WARTIME LIFE AT SOESTERBERG AIRBASE

For over forty years, Soesterberg Airbase was used by the United States Air Force and was strictly out of bounds to the public. This ‘secret’ conservation area has since been given back to the people of Utrecht. In 2013, we shall mark a century of military aviation with an extensive cultural programme. All events are inspired by the unique history of Soesterberg (which played a signifi cant role in the ‘Cold War’) and its remarkable setting.

The programme will include public artworks, challenging theatre productions and exhibitions. What is it like to be in the middle of a war? You will be able to fi nd out for yourself at the special exhibition created by CBKU/SKOR and housed in a former F16 fi ghter aircraft hangar. Video and audio combine to give a chillingly realistic impression of wartime life. You will not be a mere spectator: space and presentation combine to create a ‘total immersion experience’.

Enjoy a drink or smoke a cigar in ‘De Kroeg’, the recreated mess room of the airbase. In this ‘time machine’, you will hear mysterious voices and snippets of long-forgotten conversations. You can watch a period news broadcast on the black-and-white television while a Starfi ghter jet roars overhead. The walls and ceiling are covered in old photos and documents. You will be transported into a bygone era.

The craving for knowledge and power can have disastrous consequences, as the theatre production ‘Faustus’ will remind us. On the airbase’s main runway, the theatre company De Utrechtse Spelen will present the famous story of the scientist who sold his soul to the devil in return for infi nite knowledge and eternal youth.

The fi nal exhibition of the ‘Former West’ project is to be held in Berlin in 2013. Over the course of several years, Former West has explored the “literal redrawing of Europe as a former dominant system”. The Western ideal is rapidly losing importance and artists from various cultures will refl ect on this fact. Former West is organized and

coordinated by the Dutch organization for contemporary arts BAK, in association with numerous international partners. In September 2013, part of the exhibition may well move to Soesterberg to accompany the programme’s concluding international conference.

BREAKING THE BONDS OF SLAVERY

The 1713 Treaty of Utrecht created a long period of relative peace and tranquillity throughout Europe and beyond. It was, in effect, the fi rst global peace treaty. Nevertheless, the struggle for economic power in Europe continued to have a number of undesirable effects, including involvement in the slave trade. The Netherlands was responsible for buying and transporting some one hundred thousand African slaves, initially to Brazil and later to Surinam and the Dutch Antilles. This shameful episode in our history continues to be of signifi cance to Utrecht and to Europe.

In 2013, it will be 150 years since the Netherlands formally abolished slavery. An international symposium, provisionally titled Breaking the bonds of slavery, moving beyond the dark side is to be held in Utrecht and will consider the modern implications of our colonial past. We hope that Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa will be able to attend as a special guest. The symposium will be organized in partnership with Utrecht University’s Centre for the Humanities, Kosmopolis, the Maluku Museum and the National Institute for Dutch Slavery History and Heritage (NINSEE).

EUTOPIA

In 2013, Utrecht will be the fi rst city to host a new art installation entitled ‘Eutopia’, which is inspired by the darker moments in the last one hundred years of European history. The work includes images of historic battlefi elds and oppressed groups, arranged in the form of a house in which the visitor chooses his own route through the ‘subconscious’ of Europe. In ‘Blue Room’ on the top fl oor of the house, artists, politicians and members of the public will discuss the future of Europe.

‘Eutopia’ has been created by the Belgian artist Filip Berte for the Treaty of Utrecht Foundation, the Utrecht Centre for the Visual Arts, Campo

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(Gent), deBuren (Brussels) and the European Cultural Foundation (Amsterdam). The art project is accompanied by a website which includes an extensive database of interviews and visitor comments. In 2014, the Eutopia House will move to Brussels, headquarters of the European Union.

INTERNATIONAL MUSIC ANDEQUESTRIAN EVENT

The International Festival of Early Music has a special surprise in store for 2013. It is to present a colourful spectacular for all the family, combining Baroque music, dressage and other equestrian events. This will be the modern equivalent of a mediaeval jousting tournament or the eighteenth-century divertissement royale, at which visitors can taste the atmosphere of court life in bygone days. The event is a joint initiative of four major European festivals: Versailles (Centre de Musique Baroque), Venice (Centre for Romantic Music), Bremen (Musikfest) and Utrecht’s own Festival of Early Music. There is also to be an international conference on Early Music, attended by representatives of sixty organizations from sixteen countries.

A PEACEFUL CONCLUSION

The autumn programme draws to a close on 21 September, the United Nations International Day of Peace. The day’s events will be organized in association with People Building Peace (the national federation of peace organizations), the youth branch of IKV/Pax Christi, and the Peace Palace in the Hague (which coincidentally celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2013). How peaceful is your home town or neighbourhood? You will be able to fi nd out using the ‘Local Peace Index’ developed by People Building Peace.

As part of the ongoing Utrecht Interactive programme, new media organizations and educational institutes in Utrecht will join the Netherlands Film Festival and other creative companies in making the Treaty of Utrecht visible on the streets. ‘Trajectum Lumen’ will cast a route through the inner city in a magical light, while ‘DJ on the Dom’ will be a large-scale dance, music and video festival.

On 21 September, we shall pass the baton on to the MasterPeace project, which aims to set up the largest peace campaign to date. People in all parts of the world will be encouraged to resolve confl icts and start their own peace projects. Top musicians from fourteen confl ict zones are to record a special peace anthem and a huge peace concert will be staged against the backdrop of the pyramids of Egypt on 21 September 2014.

MasterPeace hopes to begin a ‘wave of reconciliation’: an African custom whereby two enemies meet in the market square to discuss their differences one last time before drinking the ‘bitter cup’ empty. Thereafter, they must never mention their confl ict again. The departure of the fi rst pilgrims from Utrecht on their way to Egypt on 21 September 2013 will form a fi tting conclusion to six months of celebrations dedicated to the Treaty of Utrecht.