What does it mean to be European today?
Europe as a cultural idea
Modernity, the future and the culture of contemporary Europe
from the perspective of a non-European
Natalia Grigorieva, artist, member of the European Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters (AESAL)
"Europe is not a territory, but the ability to remember, understand and doubt" ...
Being European today means above all belonging to a space of ideas and spiritual traditions, and not just to a continent. Europe is not only a territory stretching from the Atlantic to the Urals, but also a certain way of thinking: respect for the individual, culture, law and freedom. Europe is not a contour on a map marked with borders, but the spiritual heritage of many generations of thinkers and the memory of great humanist achievements. Here, everything is built on dialogue: antiquity and Christianity, the Enlightenment and modernity, business and poetry. From the outside, Europe seems united, but from the inside, one senses that it expresses itself through a multitude of different voices, striving to speak with one voice and defend common values, the most important of which remains the human being. To a non-European, Europe often appears less as a unity than as a mosaic of traditions, where difference is not destroyed but preserved as a value. This is where its unique strength lies and, at the same time, its weakness in a world where the desire for uniformity and control is constantly growing.
Contemporary Europe lives as if in the mirror of its history. It is the guardian of museums and ruins, but also the laboratory of a digital and globalised future. The 21st-century European is trying to reconcile historical memory with the acceleration of technical progress, the spiritual past with an impersonal and mechanised future. Being European today means knowing how to live with memory without making it a burden. It is the ability to see the future through the prism of culture, not just economics. Europe is the only region in the world where questions of meaning, beauty and spiritual depth remain important in public life.
From an outside observer's perspective, it looks like a search for a balance between spirituality and scientific and technological progress, between Vermeer and the photos of deep space taken by the James Webb telescope. On the one hand, there is the legacy of antiquity, Christianity, humanism, the Enlightenment and Romanticism; on the other, the digital age, migration, identity crises, and climatic and technological challenges.
From the outside, Europe is often perceived as a laboratory of freedom and dignity, a place where dialogue, education, culture and social justice are valued. However, looking at the situation from the outside, it is clear that Europe is currently facing a crisis of confidence in its own ideals. The values born of the Enlightenment – humanism, tolerance, equality, democracy – are increasingly being questioned by Europeans themselves.
A non-European perspective sees this as the drama of maturity: a civilisation that has reached great heights is beginning to doubt the solidity of its foundations. Unlike civilisations that are convinced they are right, Europe knows how to doubt, seek and rediscover the past. It is reminiscent of an intelligent man whose tone always betrays a hint of doubt. This openness to criticism and reflection is part of its cultural code, which makes European thought not only vibrant but also viable.
In a modern world where relationships are increasingly based on opposition, Europe remains a place of reconciliation through culture. It is here that painting and politics, philosophy and the street, history and everyday life intersect. It is precisely culture – museums, theatre, universities, books, exhibitions – that brings Europe to life. For those coming from outside, integrating into European life means touching on the idea of reconciliation through art: not in the sense of consensus, but in that of the coexistence of differences.
European identity is a dialogue between seemingly incompatible communities: Romans and barbarians, Christians and Muslims, classical art and the avant-garde. For a non-European who finds themselves here, it is not simply a set of rules or rights, but an experience of integration into an endless conversation about humanity and the meaning of life.
In the age of artificial intelligence and global systems, Europe remains a place where personality takes precedence over function, and where culture is not an unaffordable luxury, but a way of thinking about everyday life. Being European tomorrow means not being afraid to be imperfect, to doubt, to seek. From a non-European's point of view, that is true freedom.
I do not look at Europe from the inside, but with a certain distance, as an artist from a country with different traditions, but where European culture and thought have always been admired, where we have learned and created without losing our own traditions, but drawing inspiration from European discoveries and achievements in the arts. For centuries, this has been a living and enriching process. I do not see Europe as an 'old continent', but as a continuous and intense dialogue between time and the meaning of life. Europe is a mirror in which humanity is reflected as it tries to understand itself. Being European means being able to look into this mirror without fear.
And perhaps it is precisely those who come from outside who are able to see Europe as it was conceived, as a project uniting reason and poetry, history and the future, culture and human dignity.