The Unknown Europeans

A photographic journey by Kurt Kaindl including texts by Karl-Markus Gauß
Special exhibition at the Austrian Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art from 26 October 2007 to 13 January 2008

During several journeys he took with the author Karl-Markus Gauß, photographer Kurt Kaindl, known for his sensitive and detailed pictures, visited places and people whose cultures and life situations are barely known.
The exhibition features a selection of photographs shot during these journeys. Kaindl’s pictures and Gauß’s texts gently introduce the audience to the nature of European minorities and make a soft but powerful and convincing plea for the unknown Europe – far from Maastricht and Brussels. The photographs show a kind of Europe in which identities try to stand their ground while crossing cultural borders every day. Considering that these peoples have never accepted the limitation of the nation-state principle, it is, paradoxically, precisely they who, hardly known to anyone, are not only witnesses of an old, forgotten Europe but at the same time are paving the way for a future Europe, in which national boundaries have been removed, however without the aim to create a uniform culture but allow ethnic, religious, linguistic and cultural diversity to develop.