Welcome to Subjectivity!
Foreword Subjective Atlas by Kristjan Mändmaa

The book you are holding in your hands is the result of a workshop at the Estonian Academy of Arts. A group of Estonian students together with the Dutch designer Annelys de Vet were confronted with a seemingly impossible task of finding something exciting in such an abstract and un-cool subject as EU.

After all, what more could there be to say about it? Over the past few years, “European Union” has probably been the most repeated phrase in the media and politics of our newly accessed country. Makes one sort of numb to hear it again.

Yet, there is a small but important detail to be noticed: the people exploring the subject so far have mostly tried to be objective – attempted to look at the big picture. When one makes a generalisation, it is only natural to omit the details. This is even easier to happen when talking about the noble values the EU supposedly represents: freedom, culture, cooperation.

There is a world to say for objectivity and political correctness, yet they have one major flaw – they are hopelessly uninvolving.

That is why I think the atlas you hold in your hands is extremely important. Within it’s few pages of student work lies a serious breakthrough. To my knowledge, it is the first attempt to do what the title of the book says: to observe European Union from the Estonian point of view SUBJECTIVELY. For the first time the view on things is personal, human, fresh, honest, exciting, un-hypocritical. For the first time the EU becomes the business of the people or rather the business of the persons.