E45 is the longest North-South going European route. It stretches from Alta in Norway and connects Scandinavia with the rest of Europe. It wiggles through the landscape and runs over hills and valleys, tunnels and bridges, over mountains and under rivers, between mainland and islands before it ebbs out in the city of Gela in Sicily.

The International Network of European Roads was UNECE’s first initiative to rebuild and unite wartorn Europe after the Second World War. The goal was to improve transport, trade and cooperation between the nations and thereby secure peace in Europe.

Today new factors are challenging European unity. Both the financial crisis and the refugee crisis have polarized Europe. And while green parties seek cooperation between the countries to stop climate change, nationalists are gaining power elsewhere with Brexit being the clearest example. Most recently our notion of European identity and what brings us together has been made relevant with the war in Ukraine.

In the following project we’ve photographed Route E45, as a visual exploration of what physically connects the Europeans in a time where unity is being tested.

*This is an ongoing project, and as such it's being presented in its unfinished form.
Made in collaboration with Kasper Heden Andersen.

Emil Agerskov

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