Parma, February 2006 the Board : Designers at work

The architecture of European monuments and buildings espresses the unity and solidity of the European Project. The colour joins the structures, showing the differences but, at the same time, making them united in the same background. The black and white figures represent two fundamental phases that are introduced to grant evolution and European progress. The first is the hand of a thinker and it represents THOUGHT and the use of reason before action. The second one is the hand of Milet’s “Sower” and it represents ACTION that gives new and better life. The fragmentation of the two pictures reveals that every part is necessary to make a project likely to succeed. Only a strict collaboration between all countries will make the European Union proceed. Giovanni Panico

I thought “The dance” by Henry Matisse could represent the union of people from different countries. The five dancers form a circle, which I intended as the icon of the European Union, and the scene conveys freshness and quickness. There’s also a sort of primitiveness in it that reminds me that dance and music are the only universal languages. I made the colour for the women with a mixture of three acrylic colours: white, red and yellow. For the background I used a collage with blue and green paper. I left little imperfections: I think they reflect spontaneity. I made the track in the shape of a yellow ribbon. I used silver for the bonus cards and “bombs” for the penalty cards. Colours have no symbolic meaning but, in my intention, they communicate spontaneity. Maria Lucia Leone

This drawing represents a blue sunflower. In the background there is a collage that symbolizes other abstract sunflowers, made with some yellow, orange and red geometric pieces. The fields are all along the petals of the main sunflower, and you have to go straight ahead through all these to arrive to the end. There are 60 fields, so every 4 ones there is a bonus or a penalty field. We’ve chosen the collage because this game features symbolise the cultural diversities of Europe. In fact the European Union is like a mosaic of cultures and languages, but it’s also an example of unity. The bonus and the penalty fields stand for the good and bad situations that have been faced or will be faced during the unification progress. So this type of cards are situated in the middle of the flower as these situations are vital in the European policy. The flower symbolizes the spring, because the winter of the E.U. is coming to the end, turning into the spring of unity. ( or at least we hope so! ) The sunflower has 5 petals, like the fingers of one hand reaching out for peace and harmony. Gabriele Cavallini and Elena Malpeli

In real life when you have a goal you surely meet a lot of problems and only by overcoming adversities you can reach your aim. It is the same for the European Union and also for the game: only if we, students, play together we win and winning means finding answers to the questions with the help of everyone. For the background of the board we have chosen Keith Haring. The little men who are linked to each other represent the European cooperation: they support each other. If we look at the question mark we find that it can also seem a light bulb and it is similar to the beams that Haring put around his men’s heads. The light bulb is the symbol of man’s intelligence, and we put the “beams” only on the heads that are inside the track. It means that only thinking and striving together we can get to the end. The colours we have chosen are the colours of the rainbow: the track begins with the colour red and finishes with the colour purple. The track becomes a peace path and peace is one of the most important values of Europe. This is emphasized by the walking heart. The heart invites to join in… so, why don’t we start? Michela Buttazzi and Maria Elisa Rovani