The Rhine, 1320 km, has carried only coal, building material, people, luxury goods, art treasures, weapons, ideas, fairytales and myths through the western half of Europe for thousands of years. Its course is lined by imposing frontiers of countries, cities, monasteries and cathedrals as well as by conurbations and industrial zones. It has been regulated, straightened, polluted, fought over, conquered and occupied. The exhibition heeds the history and cultural and political imperative of cross-border cooperation between the riparian states of Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Germany, France and the Netherlands. Following the course of the Rhine from its sources to the Rhine-Meuse-Schelde delta, the exhibition sheds light on many of the momentous and often dramatic events that punctuate more than 2000 years of cultural history.