Within the scope of the 50th anniversary of the signature of the Treaty of Rome and the 60th anniversary of the creation of Magnum Photos, the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium present twelve views from photographers belonging to this mythical agency. The cartes blanches, produced with the support of Alcatel-Lucent, relate to the countries having last joined the European Union. These are singular visions, sometimes ironical, enigmatic or dark, at other times flirting with fiction, by Bruno Barbey (Bulgaria), Carl De Keyzer (Malta), Martine Franck (Czech Republic), Alex Majoli (Latvia), Peter Marlow (Cyprus), Martin Parr (Slovenia), Paolo Pellegrin (Rumania), Mark Power (Poland), Lise Sarfati (Lithuania), Chris Steele-Perkins (Slovakia), Patrick Zachmann (Hungaria), Donovan Wylie (Estonia).

Euro Visions,, organized by Diane Dufour, Director of Magnum Photos, and Quentin Bajac, Curator at the Musée national d’Art moderne (Paris), first took place at the Centre Georges Pompidou during the autumn 2005. The exhibition was then completed by two new cartes blanches given to Bruno Barbey in Bulgaria and Paolo Pellegrin in Rumania. These were produced by the Royal Museums, as a response to the changes taking place within the European Union, with the enlargement to Bulgaria and Rumania on January 1st, 2007. This presentation is the last stage of the exhibition in Europe, after the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Triennale in Milan, the Ludwig Museum in Budapest and the Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw.

Euro Visions, the new Europeans by twelve Magnum photographers evolves around twelve mental constructions that appeal to the thought of each visitor through original installations: a picture which leaves a lot of room to the unsaid, the off camera. More sensitive to problems than to solutions, these photographers ask more questions than they give answers. Their views merely detect the signs of history in the making. What’s more, this exhibition is a first for the Royal Museums, through which they are opening themselves to contemporary photography and installation.

Euro Visions, the new Europeans by twelve Magnum photographers also pay tribute to two major historical events. First, the 60th anniversary of the creation of Magnum Photos by Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger and David « Chim » Seymour who, immediately after the war, imposed the status of author-photographer, independent and responsible for their views in a humanistic and committed perspective. Ten years later, on March 25th, 1957, the Treaty of Rome was signed by France, Germany, Italy and the Benelux, with the common will of strengthening peace and liberty and improving the living conditions of the European citizens. The European Economic Community was born and led to the establishment of a general Common Market, the creation of a Community of the Atomic Energy and the development of a Customs Union.

Thanks to the personality of Paul-Henri Spaak, the Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs at that time, Belgium has played a major part in these negotiations. In order to underline this involvement, the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium have associated themselves with the Belgian federal scientific institutions located on the Mont des Arts, which will also open exhibitions devoted to the Treaty of Rome, on March 9th, 2007. With Europe à la Une? Europa: voorpaginanieuws?, the Royal Library of Belgium (pr@kbr.be / www.kbr.be)focuses on the way the daily press covered the negotiations, and thereafter the signature of the Treaty, at the beginning of the year 1957. The Belgian National Archives (communicat@arch.be) present Spaak, Rothschild, Snoy. From Val Duchesse to the Treaty of Rome underlining the part played by these men who assisted the Minister, namely Robert Rothschild, his head of cabinet, and Jean-Charles Snoy et d’Oppuers, Secretary General of Economic Affairs.

Finally, in parallel with the exhibition Euro Visions, the new Europeans seen by twelve Magnum photographers, the Royal Museums, which were French and Netherlandish before Belgium’s independence, intend to publish Euro Museums, a free booklet designed for the public which stresses the European dimension of their collections and history, symbols of the central role played by Brussels and Belgium, true European crossroads long before the European Union was created.