Common Space
Paula Gortázar
Madrid
1984
The European Union was created in the aftermath of the Second World War with the purpose of promoting the economic cooperation between countries, believing that making all of them economically interdependent would avoid further conflict. Since then, the Union has developed into a huge single market with the Euro as its common currency for most of its member states. What began as a purely economic union has evolved into an organisation spanning all areas, from development aid to environmental policy.
Common Space depicts the interiors of the European Parliament in Brussels and Strasbourg, an institution which, despite being little understood or liked by many citizens, is gaining a prominent role in legislating our everyday European living circumstances. In its corridors, offices and meeting rooms, these quasi-futuristic spaces reveal a dream created in the fifties; a future whose ideals have been recently put into question after the serious economic recession suffered across the continent.
