Open Up the Shutters: Photographing Conflict and Division is a unique artistic collaboration between cultural organisations in three European cities that have been zones of war, conflict and division in recent times – Berlin, Dubrovnik and Derry-Londonderry, the first UK City of Culture in 2013. The key focus of the project will be the development of artistic responses to images of war through the medium of photography, digital and graphic art. All three cities have left indelible images of conflict and division in the collective memory of the West and we wish to interrogate these images and their representations in a variety of media, from video art to wall murals. The iconography of walls plays a key role in the narratives of all three cities. The historic walls of Derry and Dubrovnik and the Berlin Wall have provoked creative responses to their symbolism and meaning from visual artists and photographers who have sought to challenge conventional representations of ‘the other’ – the enemy at the gates. The three partners wish to explore the stories behind such iconic images in order to provoke new artistic responses and visual interpretations in a generation to whom the power of image-making through digital photography, comic books, animation and graphic art is increasingly accessible.