Images from Paradise

Drawing upon the disciplines of politics, anthropology, psychoanalysis, aesthetics and cinema studies, Salgo presents a new way of looking at the "art of European unification" and to highlight the mythical sources of the federalist project. The visual narratives constitute the main object of inquiry - the iconography of the new "Europa" series of euro banknotes and the videos launched by the European Commission, the European Parliament and by the European Central Bank, through which the supranational elite seek to generate "collective effervescence," allow for a European carnival to take place, and prompt citizens to pledge allegiance to the sacred dogma of the "ever closer union," thereby strengthening the organization's legitimacy.