What is it like to be young and restless in Europe? The immersive exhibition Restless Youth in the House of European History in Brussels focuses on this question. Visitors will experience a compelling journey through the passions and struggles of being young in Europe over the last 70 years. Original objects, music, film, fashion, art, television and personal stories are quintessential to revive the times and catch the zeitgeist.

The exhibition takes us through four generations that grew up at crucial points in European history: ‘Europe’s quiet generation?’ from the 1940s, ‘Generation revolution’ from the 1960s, the generation ‘Between despair and hope’ from the 1980s and ‘Generation me?’ from the 2000’s.The defining experiences of youth form the leitmotiv in this journey through time: from work and education, developing an identity, to becoming politically active, and finding love.

Visitors will discover that in the past 70 years, young people in Europe have gone from being a group to whom history happened to a group that actually makes history. Across Europe, young people chose to break with the values of their parents and view themselves as a distinct generation, ‘my generation’. They forged their own culture with its own set of values. Values that young people were ready to fight and even die for. But while this exhibition is about young people, it is not just for them. We were all young once, and while youth may be fleeting, it is rarely forgotten.