‘Vastly Equal’ is a contribution towards honouring the revolutions that opened the doors to a new era not just in the states of the former Eastern bloc but all over Europe, even the world. All participants had agreed from the beginning that the project should not be confined to just telling another short story of the changes of the years of 1989/90 in the multi-voiced commemoration year of 2009. They focussed on the target to trace the changes in the participating cities and countries from the 1980s up to the present decade, examining selected subjects. Thus, they took a look at transformation processes from the dictatorships of late socialism up to the democracies of the present time, the question of the significance of the changes for long-term transformation always being one of special importance.

The project took the liberty to illustrate this change deliberately from the perspective of the young generation who had not consciously experienced everyday life in socialism nor the process of overcoming the socialist party regimes. In addition, its exhibitions in Wroclaw, Poland; in Prague, Czech Republic; in Bratislava, Slovakia; and in Dresden, Germany, added a multinational view to the nationally focussed jubilees held in many places. Examination of the peaceful revolution in each of the cities was always accompanied by a look over the fence at the neighbour; the view of one’s own history, apparently self-evident, was questioned in a productive way by dealing with the others’ histories.

It soon became evident that ‘Vastly Equal’ had set itself a challenging agenda. This referred to the definition of topics and the research as well as to transforming the results into the medium of an exhibition. The time frame of 10 months for preparation also was extremely ambitious. And all this was to be performed by young people, in addition to their university courses, guided by mentors all of whom also pursued other professional activities. Quite a few professionals in the area of exhibitions whom we talked to during this work raised their eyebrows in doubt and, despite all benevolence, were rather sceptical of the chances of success. It is a great achievement by the city teams and the coordinators of ‘Vastly Equal’ to have managed under these circumstances to present the project to the public as scheduled, with four exhibitions in the autumn of 2009.

I.

Even though my function had been designed to be the scientific leader, all participants agreed that the project was not a scientific undertaking primarily aiming at new research results, but was designed to develop historically-based independent perspectives in the first place. Thus, practical work required advice in a number of practical issues, consultation concerning selection and structuring of the topics, ideas and inspiration for discussions within the teams and across the project, and coordinating and facilitating crossborder content-related cooperation.

Numerous discussions with the city groups and with individuals were focussed on assistance in finding topics, feedback on conceptual considerations or information on efficiency and problems of methods such as Oral History—all teams conducted interviews with witnesses of the time. The question of how to position and process work results within the historical environment kept arising. If one situation required encouraging a bold solution of difficult problems, it may have been necessary in another to bring a flight of thoughts down to earth and convey it with the means at hand. There was only little time for these ‚consultations‘ on practical issues during our three-day-workshops and in direct talks with the individual teams.

This is why it was my priority to promote discussions among mentors and city groups and provide stimuli for intensifying the exchange between them. It became evident that the concept of the exhibitions of the cities as a whole as well as the individual exhibition topics benefitted considerably from in-depth discussions within the groups. A feeling of togetherness evolved—to varying degrees—in all cities, enhancing productivity as well as helping some ‘trudge through the flatlands‘ when working on their own topics. This team spirit was a critical factor in mastering the crucial phase of the production of the exhibition including the labour-intensive final phase of installing the expositions.

Being new to most of the participants, the medium of the exhibition with its special requirements proved to be a challenge that had been underestimated at first. As the sites, topics, and inauguration times of the four exhibitions were different, these specific problems could not be handled following a general pattern but required local solutions. Support from experts, including graphic designers and professional exhibition designers in the individual cities, was an important step to clear away some of the difficulties. Moreover, the creative proposals for designs indicating the setting in which the exhibition would be presented also filled the teams with new energy during the final phase. All exhibitions combined, with varying emphasis, documentations and opportunities for information or interpretation with deliberately emotionalising elements and forms of expression, even sensational or provocative objects.

II.

The discussions about similarities and differences of the changes in the participating countries and about the character of the longer-term transformation processes were among the most exciting and most productive moments of the cross-border cooperation. Initially felt hesitation to discuss things in foreign languages and in a larger group, vanished as work on the project progressed.

In the debates about the concept or a guiding term to characterize the development in the participating countries difficulties appeared beneath the concept of ‘transformation’. They were difficulties in defining the pre-history in the 1980s, in approaching the changes, and in characterising the result of the transformation, such as the question of how to characterise the revolution in each individual country. From a Polish view, some explaining was needed as to why the German party drew a picture of the late 1980s of SED dictatorship mainly as a phase of torpor, and highlighted the years of 1989/90 as a time of very quickly growing civil courage and rapid political change. The Polish side on their part had to explain repeatedly that the revolution in Poland had been a far longer process than in the GDR and the CSSR, its starting point being the foundation of Solidarnosc in 1980. The German participants also gained new insight learning that in socialist Poland the political changes were not primarily caused by a lack in freedom to travel and deficiencies in democracy, but by deficiencies in areas such as food supply or housing opportunities that were much more deficient than in the GDR. The German special situation was prominent throughout the discussions: the unification of the two German states after the peaceful revolution enabled the population of the former GDR to achieve a political and institutional stability outstanding in Eastern-Central European comparison and including a high level of legal security and a comparatively stable economic outlook. Evaluation of the changes and handling the elites of the socialist regimes also give rise to many more conflicts at present in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia than in Germany. Some participants in the discussions therefore found it hard to understand that in a thorough ‘dealing’ with the past in Germany former Minister for State Security Erich Mielke was not sentenced to imprisonment for his deeds in the GDR but rather for double murder in the year 1931.

Interest in similar comparing discussions grew with the participants’ increasing level of knowledge and soon exceeded the time scheduled and available. It became obvious that prehistory, revolution and effects in the four cities could only be brought to common terms on a very high level of abstraction which would have been hard to realise in the medium of an exhibition. But these implicit comparisons from the discussions developed their positive effects in a special way. Not only did the participants reflect upon 1989 as an all-European movement in the discussions and developed an awareness of the differences within a joint transformation. It was even more important for the project that by looking at the different all participants gained a sharpened view of the development in their own countries and cities, became aware of their own position and also arrived at new perspectives on their own topics.

III.

The main points of the four city exhibitions of Vastly Equal with regard to content and form certainly were the result of the interaction of various factors, from the participants’ personal interests through to the material resources of the teams. Yet every one of the exhibitions can be seen in close relation to the political, economic and social conditions that had evolved in the individual countries after 1989. Even if this may be seen as overly simplified, we will at least try to throw a light in the form of theses on such reflections of the environment in the four city exhibitions.

The team in Bratislava concentrated on ambiguous artistic forms of expression—a ‘pirate radio station’ playing sequences from interviews with witnesses of the time in public space, and large-scale objects with text and tables. On first sight, this interpretation of empiric material on the (non-)transformation at the University of Bratislava and the criticism of this may seem to result from the authors’ professional orientation. But it begs the question whether this form of treatment might also result from the fact that in Slovakia, even 20 years after the revolution, a civil society is still developing and it is therefore hard to find partners in dialogue, an audience, or even a discursive room of resonance for argumentative forms of dealing with 1989.

An installation could be seen in Dresden, too, but this exhibition was mainly based on texts, documents, and photos for illustration, tracing and interpreting the development in the individual subject areas since the 1980s. While dissociating from the conditions under SED dictatorship and clearly appreciating the achievements of the peaceful revolution, and without moralising, the authors also showed the problems arising after 1989 for particular groups, such as foreign contract workers with an insecure legal status and means of subsistence. This non-polemic and confident treatment of the topic, showing current deficiencies as a task rather than a betrayal of the ideals of the peaceful revolution, was certainly favoured the fact that in Germany there is a consensus on the positive evaluation of 1989 without general mystification and heroicisation. Moreover, German unification very soon brought about stable structures and legal security and alleviated the social consequences of the change of systems. All this created a comparatively relaxed atmosphere allowing to point out problems resulting from the changes.

In contrast to this, the approaches of the exhibition in Wroclaw deliberately and successfully designed emotional worlds which the visitors could hardly evade. Here, too, high respect of the historical achievement of Solidarnosc and of the changes in 1989 could be felt throughout the exhibition. There was also a striking emphasis on the liberating and creative awakening of the years of 1989/90, such as in the art scene of Wroclaw. But there was at least subliminal regret about the fact that this awakening had not been continued accordingly; that its ideas had partly been lost along the way; and that current expediencies have displaced deep-rooted cultures. There is at least some indication that these may be reflexes such as of the political conflicts concerning the evaluation of 1989 still virulent in Poland, and of the social inequalities and deficiencies in today’s society where lightness of the awakening seems to have been lost.

With its thematic focus on biographies and the lives of people who had suffered, for different reasons, from the conditions in the dictatorships in Czechoslovakia and the GDR, the Prague team created an atmospheric counterpoint to the vivid street festival in Prague on 17 November 2009, where tens of thousands celebrated the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the Velvet Revolution. With installations, some of them in public areas, the exhibition also contributed creatively and sometimes provocatively to the lightness of the celebrations. At the same time its focus on the fates and self-interpretations of emigrants from Prague highlighted a group of people whose courses of life were not just interesting but also moving. They are, more than anything, examples for a self-determined life under difficult external conditions, and may even be seen as offers to provide orientation in the current social environment in the Czech Republic, which is perceived as confusing and full of conflicts.

Altogether, the four exhibitions reflected the increased experience the exhibition makers had gained while working in the Vastly Equal? project. The awakening of 1989 is a central turning point of the shared European history with an enormous integrating effect. Each of these revolutions, however, has its own country-specific characteristics which can be overlooked no more than the variation of the paths the individual societies have taken to develop in democracy and market economy.

Dr. Peter Skyba, contemporary historian and journalist, is the scientific leader of the entire project and has acted as an advisor to the teams in Dresden, Prague, Wroclaw, and Bratislava.