Sicco Mansholt – A Good European
Studio PolyLester designed for the exhibition ‘Sicco Mansholt – A Good European’ an installation in which the story of the rise, decline and radical change of heart of this emblematic figure from European agricultural policy is told.
Sicco Mansholt was a farmer and social democrat who in post-war Netherlands became an authoritative Minister of Agriculture. After 14 years of being a minister, he took up office as the first agricultural Commissioner of the EEC. Mansholt’s policy has had a great influence on the economic position of farmers, on the unification of Europe and on the design of the Dutch landscape.
For Het Nieuwe Instituut, the multidisciplinary Amsterdam-based design bureau PolyLester translated Mansholt’s life story to an installation. The way in which some of Mansholt’s ideas took root in society was shown by means of a series of information films and historical and topical film footage about the modernization of the countryside.