On May 1, 2004 the European Union will expand beyond its current "core Europe" constellation to include, for the first time, nations of the former Eastern and Non-Aligned Blocks. For these ten nations the 'day of accession' is the opportunity to rejoin a European sphere which, for many, was felt to have been robbed through the militarily enforced alliances of the Cold War. By recalling the pan-European Picnic of 1989 along the Austrian-Hungarian border, which induced the events leading to the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the Trans-European Picnic will mark the resultant shift in Europe's geopolitical structure. For many however, the 'opening' brought about by the events of 1989 are now to be met by 'managed closure', restricted mobility, the revival of 'visa regimes' delineating new barriers and borders as well as the imposition of new top-down regulations, bureaucracies and standards.

Through a two-day electronic media arts and culture gathering at the city of Novi Sad, Serbia, a few kilometres beyond the European Union's new transnational edge, the Picnic will bring together artists, theoreticians and media practitioners from across Europe to explore the changing cultural and artistic landscape within and beyond this new conglomerate of competing cultures, economies and identities. The Trans-European Picnic will provide a lively platform of debate and exchange into the evolving sense of identity and new forms of collaboration active in countering the growing gap separating the Europe of the "Out-side" from the Europe of the "In-side".