“Critique and Crisis” consists of a unique attempt to offer a contemporary post-Cold War perspective on European art and history since 1945. Europe will be envisaged as a mental territory and a field of interaction between values inherited from the Enlightenment.The project will be coordinated by the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin, in partnership with 6 museums of modern and contemporary art from Poland, Estonia, Italy, Czech Republic, Greece and Germany and a Belgian cultural development agency. The main activity will consist of a major exhibition structured into 12 themes that address the most prominent social, political, ideological and cultural questions related to recent European history. These themes will be presented according to an all-encompassing approach that will ensure equal esteem for all works and seek to overcome the outdated divides inherited from the Cold War. The exhibition will be hosted in Berlin, Cracovie, Tallinn and Milan. Selected sections of it will tour in Berlin, Prague and Thessaloniki. In addition, 4 international workshops as well as a closing conference will take place at the partners’ institutions. The programme of activities will also include an interactive website, a paper and virtual catalogue and an educational programme targeting a younger audience, developed in partnership with universities and media schools. Material and documentation produced in the framework of this project will enable a wider dissemination beyond the countries where the exhibition and other events will be hosted. Finally, a large number of art professionals across Europe will collaborate so to design the contents of the project. Art has the unique power to initiate connections, thus revitalising our collective memory and reshaping our present and future. Should “Critique and Crisis” contribute to disclosing new paths in exploring the history of art in Europe after 1945, the project would have fully achieved its main purpose.