"ATLANTIS - Hidden Histories - New Identities - European Art 20 years after the Iron Curtain" examines the development of identity and political perceptions in the countries which lay on both sides of the Iron Curtain up until 20 years ago. The themes of democracy and social coexistence in the new Europe of 27 are to be examined. Exhibition projects will take place along the former inner-German border, along the borders between Austria and the Republic of Slovakia, and between Greece and Bulgaria. Visual artists from Germany, Bulgaria and Greece will trace the classical ideas of democracy, discuss the different approaches, measure the dimensions and reflect on the future. Artists from the Republic of Slovakia and Austria will use the exhibition of the modern nomads of Europe as a new social challenge to each of us to visualise our own creative mobility. Dancers from Slovenia, Italy, the Czech Republic and Germany will work out a performance within the framework of the Tanztheatertage (dance and theatre festival) in Potsdam which deals with new rooms and empty rooms, the social fracturing of centre and periphery. During the Venice Biennale in 2009 the projects will present a joint exhibition with one artist from each respective country. This exhibition will introduce the work of partners and of the project to a European public which is interested in art. The artistic collaboration will be strengthened with 3 conferences, during which artistic development before and after the fall of the Iron Curtain, the tradition of form and resistance and the present situation of the artists and their challenges will be discussed. Each debate and the project will be documented in a joint publication and each exhibition project will be documented and published individually. Europe in quest of its' cultural identity, a search for a joint history and the contemporary contact with it in this time of discussions about a European constitution.

The role of Rohkunstbau within the framework of the project "Hidden Histories - New Identities" consists in the initiation of an artistic debate on the subject of the area of tension between elitist and egalitarian structures, collapsed systems and ideal societies through the organisation of an exhibition with the theme Atlantis: this will serve as a starting point and point of contact for the entire project. The idea originates from the founders of Rohkunstbau. Together with the coordinator, Heinrich Böll Stiftung Brandenburg, this concept has been further developed and made ready for application.