Coordinator: Vest-Agder-Museet IKS (NO)
Partners: National Museum of Contemporary History (SI), Ájtte, svenskt fjäll- och samemuseum (SE), Etnografski muzej Istre – Museo etnografico dell’Istria (HR), Knud Rasmusens Hus (DK), Muzeum Pomorza Srodkowego w Slupsku (PL), Universitetet i Agder (NO), Vilniaus Universitetas (LT)

Project amount: 2.563.202 EUR (50 %)
EU support: 1.281.601 EUR
Project duration: 1. 9. 2019–31. 8. 2023

The exhibition Up YU Go! Stories of Identities on the Line (10 December 2021-1 Maj 2022) highlights the stories of immigrants from Yugoslavian republics to Slovenia and their descendants in the period after World War II. It offers an intimate view into the complex personal stories of three generations, their relationships and family dynamics, their transition into a new home, and the impact of Slovenia’s independence and wars in Yugoslavia on their lives. It illuminates the multiplicity of possible identities that interact and shape the reality of every individual.

I-ON is a large-scale cooperation project between six cultural history museums and two universities, working together to explore the long-term consequences of different migration processes, forced or voluntary, which took place in Europe over the last 100 years. Through the collection and dissemination of experiences from former migrants and their descendants, summarized and placed in factual historical contexts, we will unfold and transmit common features of migration from past to future generations. Our priority is to reinforce the sense of belonging to a common European space to newer migrants, to those who have settled and their hosting communities.

Transnational cooperation, the circulation of cultural works and players, is assured by a broad cooperation between museums in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Lithuania, Slovenia and Croatia. Each museum will work in parallel on one migration process in its country by collecting and facilitating sensitive narratives in local exhibitions and uncovering challenges which have not been addressed before. The main findings and common features will be summarized and made available as a joint travel exhibition circulating in Europe and a digital package, free to download. The working process initiates interaction between partners and other professionals, aiming at skill transfer, the anchoring of successful methods among colleagues, as well as developing toolkits and school packages.

Audience development will be achieved through extended cooperation with and dissemination to defined target groups, including children, young people and under-represented groups. Using comprehensive dissemination methods on local, national and international levels, the project will contribute to increased mutual understanding among people in Europe with similar experiences regardless of time, place or event. Hereby, the importance and urgency of a positive and effective social integration of migrants will be demonstrated.