Special Projects

Alongside the core work carried out within the main axes of focus, as outlined over the previous pages of this report, the Evens Foundation also engages with a limited number of special projects. These allow the Foundation to make strategic and flexible decisions around events or projects that further its overarching mission, beyond the axes outlined in its strategic plan.

Mayday Magazine

On the occasion of the anniversary of the Schuman Declaration on 9 May, Are We Europe, Bozar, Bertelsmann Foundation and the Evens Foundation joined forces again for the second issue of Mayday Magazine –an annual publication that aims to explore the lessons of Europe’s past, understand the intensities of it current reality and envisage its future.

At a moment when vaccinations were rolling out across Europe, opening up new horizons and perspectives after a long period of stasis for many, the 2021 edition sought a diversity of answers to the question: what next?

How can we avoid the mistakes of the past? How can we learn from this period of disruption and prepare for the future together? From the mystical landscapes of Iceland to the shores of the Mediterranean, the magazine aimed to take readers on a journey across Europe and beyond, to explore future scenarios.

Chief among these in 2021 were the latest iteration of an ongoing collaboration with the cultural institution Bozar in Brussels on Mayday Magazine, and the early stages of organisation for the Foundation’s 30th-anniversary event, which was rescheduled to 2022 due to a new wave of Covid restrictions and infections in Belgium and the surrounding countries.

Journalist and coordinator for BOZAR’s Agora programme Karl van den Broeck curated five sessions of discussions and interviews on 9 May to support the launch of the issue: `

The new Roaring Twenties?

Could the end of the health crisis herald a new incarnation of the Roaring Twenties? With Teresa O’Connell and Karolina Szedja.

Europe and democracy

In the wake of the Conference on the Future of Europe, a digital platform that invites citizens to share their vision for the future of the European Union, check out the interviews with European Commission Vice-President for Democracy and Demography, Dubravka Šuica, and historian and expert on Europe, Luuk Van Middelaar.

Are the United States showing the way?

With Joe Biden marking the famous “hundred days” of his presidency, Karl Van den Broeck asked prominent American journalist Thomas Friedman to talk about the future, and, in particular, the future of EU-US relations.

Homelands - New European Writing

Three winners of the European Prize for Literature, Mathias Nawrat (Germany), Lana Bastasic (BosniaHerzegovina) and Irene Solà (Spain), discussed the possible literary contradiction between country of origin and European identity in a round table chaired by Nicky Aerts.

Interview: Amin Maalouf

An exceptional interview with Franco-Lebanese author Amin Maalouf who, following his latest book Adrift: How Our World Lost Its Way, offers a perspective on transatlantic relations. With Safia Kessas.