Temporary European Pavilion inaugurated

Some time ago, Auroville’s town-planning office, TDC, took the wise decision to allow for temporary structures in the International Zone. In the past this underdeveloped zone of Auroville has faced great challenges, like land encroachment, littering and vandalizing by outside parties, with only Bharat Nivas, the Pavilion of Tibetan Culture, the Unity Pavilion, the International House, the Inuksuk, Savitri Bhavan and the Visitors’ Center as its first settlers and guardians.

Active presence provides the best protection and stimulates the imagination of what one day will become a vibrant international campus of cultural, educational and research activities. So the African and the French pavilions recently took their first temporary shape and Sankalpa Art Journeys found its first temporary home in colourful blue containers opposite the Inuksuk.

The call for an increased presence in this zone also came from the European pavilion group, which had been in existence for more than a decade with members from Auroville International (AVI) and from Auroville. In its earlier years, the group had concentrated on the inner search, on the question of whether one can speak of a common European identity, of a “European soul” striving to shape its body – a question that cannot be easily answered. Recently, confronted with major threats to the unity of Europe, which is so important and precious after two devastating wars in the last century, the group felt the urge to create a material space to receive and anchor the Mother’s and Sri Aurobindo’s force working for human unity. As a first step, two years ago, on February 21, 2016, a tree was planted and a small sculpture with the Mother’s name “Mirra” in Sanskrit erected and consecrated in the designated European area of the International Zone.

Then fundraising started for the manifestation of a temporary European House and a place was offered in the fenced and protected compound of the International House. Donations came in from different European AVI groups and individuals, from a Luxembourg Green Party member of the European Parliament, who donated for the solar equipment of the house, and from Aurovilian pavilion groups and individuals.

On February 17 of this year the first section of the European House – two modules and an open platform – was inaugurated with a lively programme. The construction team of Jothi Prasad Rajan’s Aurocreation and a dynamic team of landscaping volunteers, guided by Michael Roberts from Scotland, had worked until the last moment to beautify the surroundings and give an idea of a future garden setting around the structures.

Aurovilian Denis Capdeville, who was the main organizing force behind the construction, welcomed the guests, among them Ms. Nirima Oza, member of the Governing Board of the Auroville Foundation, who also greeted the participants. Isa Wagner, the former Secretary of Auroville International, spoke on behalf of AVI, mentioning the importance of Auroville as an “earth-laboratory”, of which nations and continents are the distinct and indispensable parts, each developing a specific aspect of collective evolution to lead humanity to its true unity in diversity.

She quoted Sri Aurobindo who described Europe’s main achievement as follows:

It is now fixed that social development and well-being mean the development and well-being of all the individuals in the society and not merely a flourishing of the community in the mass which resolves itself really into the splendour and power of one or two classes … But in addition, there is this deeper truth which individualism has discovered ... He [the individual] is not merely a member of a human pack, hive or ant-hill; he is something in himself, a soul, a being, who has to fulfill his own individual truth and law as well as his natural or his assigned part in the truth and law of the collective existence. ... That is an idea, a truth which, intellectually recognized and given its full exterior and superficial significance by Europe, agrees at its root with the profound and highest spiritual conceptions of Asia and has a large part to play in the moulding of the future.”

The Human Cycle, Chapter II – The Age of Individualism and Reason

The 250 participants of the event were offered a copious fundraising lunch. The programme also included small activities and performances by different national groups, mirroring the rich cultural diversity of Europe: a master potter from Kazakhstan, a German pianist, recitals in Catalan, Spanish and Luxemburgish, songs in Swedish, Portuguese and French, a German cannon, an Italian aria, a Russian modern dance and a French circle dance, a British and an Irish poetry recital, an Austrian volunteer with drummers from SVARAM, and much more.

The next step is to start a new fundraising for a third building module to complete the original layout based on a three-pointed star-like form around a hexagonal platform; to complete the landscaping and beautification of the surrounding area; to look for furniture and, above all, to fill the place with life, cultural activities, small performances, exhibitions and such.

The space will also be offered as a base camp for further planning activities of other pavilion groups, in the spirit of true sharing and collaboration. A taste of this became obvious when the neighbours from the International House communicated their plans to build another guest house within the compound, which would also be for guests of the European House, as well as a community kitchen offering the possibility for an adjacent European restaurant.

All this is a promising outlook for an accelerated development of the International Zone.