France's Expo

This exhibition was made by Cap Ulysse in France. Read more about this organization on our Team page.

About the national pilot and exhibition

The French national pilot for the ONE Culture project took place in March 2026 in Bordeaux, facilitated by Cap Ulysse. The pilot involved 23 adult learners in a unique intercultural and intergenerational exchange, bringing together Spanish senior learners from CPEPA Andorra and migrant women from Cap Ulysse’s “Actives & Connectées” integration program. 

This narrative artwork reimagines the famous Bordeaux painter Rosa Bonheur living in the modern city today. Created through a fast-paced storytelling chain, each participant had only one minute to draw a panel before passing it to their neighbour to write the text or continue the story. The resulting comic strip is a product of pure collective imagination, selected by a group vote for this exhibition.
This comic strip brings the historic Bordeaux philosopher Montesquieu into the year 2026 to explore contemporary citizenship. Using the same blind collaborative rotation method, participants constantly enriched and transformed each other's ideas panel by panel. This piece celebrates absolute co-creation and playful teamwork, representing one of the two winning stories elected by the participants.

After an introduction to the project, participants engaged in hands-on workshops testing the ONE Culture Learner Toolkit, specifically the methodologies “A Day in the Life of a Global Citizen” and “Cre(active) Courtroom”. Using non-verbal and artistic techniques, such as drawing, collage, comics, and video production, participants bypassed linguistic barriers to explore how European values manifest in daily life. Despite differences in age, background, and language, they successfully built a common language rooted in empathy, respect, and mutual understanding. They collaborated in mixed groups to connect grand institutional principles with concrete actions, ultimately identifying “Freedom” as the core value defining their shared journey. 

This large collaborative paper mural showcases a society built on shared values and environmental consciousness. Using collage and drawing, participants freely co-created their perfect community, integrating green spaces, rivers, and essential infrastructures like schools and hospitals. Through these visual choices, the artwork weaves together the fundamental values of the EU, celebrating cultural diversity and the protection of the environment. It served as the ultimate reflection of their week, concluding with the collective choice of "Freedom" as the core EU value that best embodies their ideal city.

Engagement throughout the pilot was electric: participants worked with intense enthusiasm, negotiated ideas smoothly, and discovered strong common ground. The resulting co-created artworks, including the “Boulette” video, the “Ideal City” fresco, and collaborative comic strips, celebrate cultural diversity and present Europe as a unified community where what connects us across borders is stronger than what divides us. 

Quotes and reflections from participants

“Meeting people from different cultures and countries, and learning about European values to apply them in our daily lives.”

“The exchange of ideas and concepts regarding European values, and the great diversity of the activities offered.”

“Meeting different people from my country and from other places, and working together on European values.”

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Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
Authors
© 2025 – ENCRE – European Network of Comics Representatives and Entrepreneurs (BE), Skill Up Srl (IT), Cap Ulysse (FR), Museumsverein Klostertal (AT), Complexul Muzeal National Moldova Iasi (RO), Quiosq (NE).
This publication was carried out with the financial support of the European Commission under Erasmus + Project “ONE Culture – Overcoming Nationalism and Euroscepticism through Culture”, N. 2024-1-BE01-KA220-ADU-000243645.