United We Stand
United We Stand is a Hollywood-style blockbuster set in the year 2020. An undercover unit of five agents from different European countries, known as the “Task Force”, must employ subversion and sabotage to prevent a developing war between the United States and China from getting out of hand. The film tackles “sci-fi political stereotypes” and challenges the USA’s image as judge, jury, and executioner on the international stage. Despite advertising spread across cities in 8 different countries in 2005, the movie never existed.
The project was created by Eva & Franco Mattes, an Italian-American artist duo. In collaboration with the anonymous authors group Wu Ming, they wrote a story “... in which Europe, not the USA, saves the world from impending doom”. While the five members of the “Task Force” each come from different countries, they operate within the story as agents of Europe, blurring the lines between nation and identity. Both socially and within large-scale conflicts such as the one posed by United We Stand, the EU is often treated as one large unit, rather than the culture differences and individuality the member countries showcase.
“Postcards in video store” (0100101110101101.org/united-we-stand)
Eva & Franco designed the poster, featuring the emblem from the EU flag composed in the center above an explosive naval battle between the U.S. and China. The top of the poster presents intimidating headshots of the five members of the “Task Force”, positioned above the clouds. The storycrafting, design, and release of this work came amidst growing controversy and opposition to the ongoing conflict between the United States and Iraq, which had begun to lose swathes of supporters since it’s start in 2003.
Countless instances of advertising for United We Stand were plastered across the world, including posters on buildings and bus stops, billboards along roads and highways, full-page advertisements in various magazines, and even postcards in video stores. At the bottom of the poster, below depictions of the battling nations’ mainland and the subtitle “Europe Has A Mission”, is the website UnitedWeStandMovie.com, which at the time provided the story synopsis for the non-existent film, as well as information about the supposed production.
A screenshot of UnitedWeStandMovie.com, featuring a plot synopsis of the film. (www.unitedwestandmovie.com, retrieved via archive.org)
Hollywood has a tendency to act as a propaganda factory for the U.S., churning out media which glorifies it’s war efforts, battlefields, and tactical abilities. Far fewer films exist within the forefront of Western culture which highlight external nations as powerful or having impact, and seeking them out can be difficult. The wave of collective hallucination which this project sparked is to be considered part of the artwork itself, as installations of the poster at Postmasters Gallery in Manhattan included live video from hidden webcams filming the public's reactions to the advertisements on the streets.
Sources
Britannica, Editors of Encyclopedia. 2024. “Iraq War.” Encyclopedia Britannica. June 4, 2024. Accessed June 4, 2024. https://www.britannica.com/event/Iraq-War/Occupation-and-continued-warfare.
Chopin, Thierry. 2018. “Europe and the Identity Challenge: Who Are ‘We’?” Robert Schuman Foundation. March 19, 2018. Accessed June 4, 2024. https://www.robert-schuman.eu/en/european-issues/0466-europe-and-the-identity-%20challenge-who-are-we.
Schou, Nicholas. 2016. “How the CIA Hoodwinked Hollywood.” The Atlantic. July 14, 2016. Accessed June 4, 2024. https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/07/operation-tinseltown-how-the-cia-manipulates-hollywood/491138/.
“United We Stand - Europe has a mission.” 2005. Wayback Machine. 2005. Accessed June 4, 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20060615205307/http://www.unitedwestandmovie.com/.
“United We Stand (2005).” 2005. Eva & Franco Mattes. 2005. Accessed June 4, 2024. https://0100101110101101.org/united-we-%20stand/.
“‘United We Stand’ by 0100101110101101.ORG.” 2006. Post.Thing.Net. 2006. Accessed June 4, 2024. https://post.thing.net/node/625.
