cafebabel.com European personalities of 2012 (12 images)
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There was music from Lithuana, France and Israel. Activists from Russia, Belarus, Slovenia and Hungary joined other EU citizens to resist the 'slacktivism' trend from the US. Scandinavians staged taboo plays, whilst Icelandic writers mingled with comic book authors from Italy and science researchers from Catalonia living in Austria. Meet the month-by-month pan-European personalities featured on cafebabel.com in 2012, and refresh your memory of the year's events
We picked up new years in 2012 in Kaunas with the Lithuanian indie singer who was born 'in the shadows of a nuclear reactor'. January also featured Parisian street pianist Steve Villa Massone, and a bundle of EU news: EU citizens against Acta treaty and getting to know Martin Schulz as the new EU president; 30 January marked the 25th anniversary of the erasmus student exchange programme (Image: courtesy of © official myspace page Alina Orlova)
Ahead of elections in April 2012, cafebabel.com Budapest presented the Hungarian activist as a sign of a future more politicised youth. February babel alumni also featured Tunisian and Algerian cartoonists Z and Slim, Isak Gerson, founder of the Kopimist church, and in music, French DJs C2C (Image: © Annamaria Kaptay)
From activism to slacktivism: a campaign from across the waters captured a different European imagination as it petitioned for a Ugandan guerilla group leader to be caught. March also featured Slovenian-Croatian duo 2Cellos, the Hungarian radio station Klubradio and a love letter from the EU to the Balkans (Image: (cc) Philip Hourican for Invisible Children/ facebook page)
In Copenhagen, the Danish playwright spoke about staging Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik’s manifesto (Breivik was sentenced in August). April also featured interviews with Russian director Victor Ginzburg, and in music, French musicians The Experimental Tropic Blues Band and Onra (Image: © Nicola Zolin for ‘MultiKulti’ aka ‘Multiculturalism on the ground’ by cafebabel.com)
Post Ukraine's Femen movement and pre-Pussy Riot's neon 'blasphemous' act, the 23-year-old activist protested for fair elections in Russia in a memorable way. May's alumni featured predominantly from Germany; Alexander Rodin from Berlin's famous squat Tacheles and the singer and writer Christiane Roesinger in the general era of a 'shitstorm' (Image: courtesy © Nastya Karimova)
The oscar-nominated Icelandic poet, novelist and lyricist's The Whispering Muse took us to a different summer location. In June musical guests included French girl band Brigitte as we reminisced over the myth of the Polish plumber as euro 2012 kicked off in Poland and Ukraine (Image: (cc) Sjon's publisher Bjartur/ bjartur.is/ Hörður Sveinsson/ wikimedia)
The Vienna-based biochemist from Barcelona won the 2012 ‘FameLab’ top science communicator award. July also featured interviews with Maxime Werner, France's youngest candidate for the election, the young Italian activist for her generation, Alessia Bottone and the Germans trying to help the Syrian cause as civil war broke out in the Middle East. There were also spotlights on French first lady Valerie Trierweiler's fast 'twitter tongue', the London olympic games and the stars at the 2012 Sarajevo film festival - thanks to the team at cafebabel Sarajevo (Image: © famelab.at/ 2012)
The Italian, who writes under a pseudonym, explains her passion for comic strips in her two blogs, which tell the story of an Italian’s life in Paris, and depict the life of a leader who is curiously reminiscent of one Silvio Berlusconi. August was a month for the women. We heard from American artist Jill Magid, and watched on as the women from Russia's Pussy Riot defied their nation, whilst an amateur octogenerian painter from Zaragoza attempted to restore a 17th century painting in Spain (Image: © Fiamma Luzzati)
We met the Belarusian association of journalists (BAJ) in Minsk, who were working on the case of the 20-year-old student who had just spent a month in the KGB underground prison for uploading some subversive photos - of a ‘teddy bear air invasion’ criticising the regime - onto his website. In Paris we met bookshop owner Sylvia Whitman and pondered the 50 Shades of Grey book sensation across Europe (Image: © Anton Suryapin official facebook page)
In Ljubljana we met the openly gay anthropologist, who is also head of Slovenia's dwindling jewish association. Featured interviewees included American author Viken Berberian, whilst we tackled the trends of masculinity, the EU's nobel peace prize and 'choosy' young unemployed Italians (Image courtesy of © JB official facebook page)
In Paris we met the French rapper with Algerian origins. We also met Paulo Magalhães and Ana Campos, the Portuguese couple reinventing the art of sending a postcard, and profiled Swedish footballer Zlatan Ibrahimovic, French Goncourt book prize-winner Jerome Ferrari, British band Madness' latest album and US president Barack Obama's reelection (Image courtesy of © Medine official facebook page)
The French-Israeli singer signs us out of 2012, with special appearances from Black Pete, Anouk Aïata and the protagonists of the end of the world as cafebabel.com saw it - the Mayan apocalypse theory has it that the world will end on 21 December 2012
Meet cafebabel.com's 'babelians' of 2011 and 2010