De Facto recommends

Mail! Maps! Travelling without moving! We love all of this. This Summer, Fenix, the Rotterdam art museum about migration, is showcasing Hotel Europe on their central square. This artwork, by Harald Vlugt consist of four large tables that form a giant map of Europe. Up close, you see that the map consists of hundreds of envelopes. The artist has sent out these envelopes, back in 1997. Some got delivered, some didn’t. Next to the artwork, there is a special table that functions as a global mailbox. At the kiosk, you can buy a postcard and a Fenix stamp. Take a seat, write a summer greeting and send it out into the world.

In eastern Ukraine, the documentary Mariinka traces several young Ukrainians whose lives have been forever shaped by more than ten years of war and conflict in the Donbas region. The world premiere of this film by Pieter-Jan De Pue will be on March 10 during the CPH:DOX festival in Kopenhagen (Denmark).

On January 22, photographer Rob Hornstra will talk with Giorgi Aronia from Abkhazia about European borders, visible and invisible. ‘Taferelen’ is a dinner & talk, organized by Fotodok in Utrecht (NL), connected to the exhibition Lost Territories: Tracing Imperial Violence.

De Facto was never as close to a border as this week: on November 12, we will travel to Maastricht (NL) for our newest edition of Off the Map. Art, science, stamps and a quiz - all about borders. Join us!

Films, exhibitions, workshops and outdoor activities: visit the Dutch Mountain Film Festival, from 4-9 November in the South of the Netherlands.

What is the true size of Africa? The ‘Correct The Map’ campaign revives the debate about the distorted Mercator projection and calls the world to adopt the Equal Earth projection, which reflects countries’ sizes more accurately.

How far would you go to uncover the truth? On August 22, De Facto’s Jorie Horsthuis will talk to Romy van Baarsen about the work of journalists at Europe’s borders, after watching Green Border, an impressive drama by Agnieszka Holland about the inhumane way in which migrants are treated. Join the conversation in MIMIK, Deventer.

The breakaway republic of Transnistria has been plunged into an energy crisis following the end of Ukrainian transit of Russian gas. If it is Kyiv and not Moscow that comes to the unrecognized statelet’s aid, Russia risks losing any remaining influence in the region.

After giving a speech from the symbolic Arc de Triomf in Barcelona and then evading a police dragnet, Carles Puigdemont has made it back to Belgium. ‘Today I’m in Waterloo after a few extremely difficult days,’ he posted on X.

As both sides of the island mark the war that began on 20 July 1974, it is in the knowledge that almost nothing has changed.

GP, celebrity chef and astrologer among defendants in third trial linked to far-right Reichsbürger

5 takeaways from the surprise election results in Catalonia, where the separatist dream suffered a setback.