RACHEL ROUZAUD
Variations on E.U. flag n°1-4, 2024
E.U. flag (polyester), various textiles and threads.
90 X 150 cm (flag 1 and 3)
300 x 150 cm (flag 2)
300 x 200 cm (two parts of 300 x 100 cm)
Produced as part of Pop the Vote project. The project started during the Pop the Vote camp, in Belgium, and took part in every event linked to it.
The aim of the project is to reflect on symbolism of the EU community using the EU flag. Participants were invited to leave part of their clothing or anything else that could have been sewn onto the flag. The contributions varied: laces, threads, pieces of scarf, shopping bags, labels, plane tickets, etc.
The aim was to visually illustrate the links between many people involved in the European Union who had never met before. If the participants wished, they could indicate where they were from, and at the end a map of the places that link these people together was created. Around one hundred people participated in the making of this artwork.
Flag n. 2 was produced at the Cité des électriciens in Bruay-La-Buissière, during their festival ‘Vacances à Gardincour’.
Flags n. 3 and 4 were produced, also as participatory artworks, in Forlì during the EYE 2024 (European Youth Event), held at the University of Bologna in Forlì. The artworks are part of the #paintEU campaign of One hour for Europe – Italia to promote EU values through artistic works.
Flag n°3: Participants were invited to work with 2 sets of E.U. members flags and the E.U. flag. The outcomeis a recomposed flag that could look like a LGBTQIA+ flag or the OMA’s barcode flag proposition,where to the members flag countries where add some colored pieces of fabric. On the other side,we can still see the E.U. flag.Flag n°4: During the event, participants were invited to question how EU flag looks today, to discuss next elections, and what European Union means to them. The participants were involved to saw a symbol on a blue canvas resembling the color of the EU flag as a proposition of re-interpretation of the European flag. The action of sawing was chosen as a medium accessible to most (children, adults,…). The frame was 6m long and people needed to be by group of two (one by side) in order to saw their symbol to the flag.