"... they came into the 'fortress' of Europe, but they never really arrived. because here there are two regional policies working according to totally different kinds of logic: the fortress with its military logic of the definite border, and the 'paradoxical space' that dissolved all borders and where the members of the 'network community' live - without borders. This paradoxical space doesn't just exist coevally to the 'fortress', but also in the same place.

... it is like in a science fiction movie where people always try to cross a border - only the place looked for is not at all beyond.

(08/11/2005, Isolde Charim in Der Standard)

Planned for publication: 24-sheet-posters, city light posters, spots displayed on large video screens, infoscreen spots in streetcars, indoor posters, trailers (cinema), homepages, radio spots, postcards and a newspaper (print and web, multilingual). An exhibition documents the results as well as the process thither.


mind map
an act of relinquishment. there is no periphery any more, it perforated and transmuted the center - the offside, hardly noticed, is the point of origin, the paradox ... a conversion of relations ... an advertising machinery from the off, financed by tax money that comes from the creaters and owners of images ... conquering public space - defining the cityscape ... zones of disturbance instead of zones of destruction ... nobody talks respresentatively about another person but himself or herself ... about  symbolic existence und physical presence ... about control meachnisms and screening mechanisms in public perception ... about "natural" admission restrictions and domestication ... about architecture and the language of exclusion ... about structural violence bringing forth violence ... describing a condition of normality where enrichment is made visible via the differences ... where a name refers to a definite person, whereas ethnic roots become nonrelevant ...

Project description
Unemployed youths between 19 and 25 years will be looked for within conventional job-seeking structures (employment office, job advertisements and flyers). The adressees are Austrian youths with migration background (2nd generation).

Offer
a job for three to possibly six months.

Job description
Expression of immidiate personal circumstances / relationships / perspectives via texts, pictures and sound.

Selection method
All incoming applications are given consideration - the applicants get invited for interviews. During the selection process the proportion of ethnic groups living in Austria and matters of gender parity will be considered.

Role reversal
As soon as the youths take up their jobs, they become decision makers on their own accounts: as art directors, photographers, directors, copy writers they deal with themselves and their identity processes.

Preparation phase
During the preparation phase there is an introduction into the various techniques of text production, photography, video etc.

Realisation phase
During the phase of processing and realizing their pieces of work the youths get professional advice and councelling. Each of the youths has the decisional autonomy over what's  "to be expressed"  - "to be published". He or she accompanies the publishing  process until the the media campaign starts, until the presentation on the homepage (on different web portals) and the exhibition opening.

Criteria/conditions/ambiance
One of the communication project's basic conditions is creating an athmosphere where decisional competences are clearly stated, meaning there is a transparent structure with explicitely allocated parts: the youths are the the decision makers, the artsitic and technical team acts as an advisory unit during the project realisation. As very individual approaches reflecting also the very different cultural backgrounds (as well as the own social group's context) shall be involved, a professional moderation of the group process is essential. The moderation also serves the preservation of differantiated representation. Each individual makes his or her own decision. In the group decisions are only communicated and exchanged. Content having emerged from one's social group finds its expression in the presentation.

Creating a connectional figure (a sign) visualizing the different expressions as a common project is considered an essential element in the process of realisation. One element of text establishing the connection also becomes important for the textual realisation, which is always bilingual (first language and language of the country).

That shall also convey the fact that the parents' first language (as a sign of identity describing and signifiying cultural context) is in many cases only used fragmentarily by the 2nd generation or has to be reacquired later.
A second fundamental condition will be dimensioning the media appearance. The communication campaign is planned to take place nationwide, focussing on Graz an the district capitals.

The basic legal condition is the adherence to the media rights that will also be explained to the youths beforehand. The rights of exploitation and use of the originated pieces of work are reserved by each participating youth. The project development's physical place is to be in the city center, which is also meant as a distinct signal to move a bit into the center of attention (most of the youths are living in the peripheries anyway).

Media
24-sheet-posters, city light posters, spots displayed on large video screens (Jakominiplatz, C. v. Hötzendorfstraße, Stadion), infoscreen spots in streetcars, indoor posters, trailers (cinema), newspaper ads, homepage (internet forums or individual blogs for the participants), radio spots, postcards and a newspaper (print and web, multilingual), potentially once per month during the project period and the presentation period.

Campaign duration
1 month

Presentation
An ample representation of the project in all its developmental phases and with all results is to follow at the place of production, which - after three months - maybe offers the best setting: as a place already defined by the youths, offering private safeness and familiarity.

Context art with reversed roles
We understand this project as a structural intervention revealing a differerent view by leaving the metalevel (talking about something ...), by stepping back, being cautious and establishing "the other one" as a subject matter of history. Thus images of concurrent realities - distinguishing themselves by
nature of their genesis - shall be made possible, as the structure of annexation and utilisation of human and social position and dispositions as a popular method of media-production is foiled. The definite enrichment is constituted by he diversity of approaches.

Organisation: Rhizom in cooperation with steirischer herbst 2007
Idea / basic concept: Leo Kreisel-Strausz_rhizom
Costs projection: Christian Bachler, Andrea Speetgens_rhizom
Concept development / realisation: Angelika Thon, Andrea Speetgens, Leo Kreisel-Strausz,
Manfred Kummer, H.J. Schubert, Christian Bachler, Mirko Maric, Albert Pall_rhizom
Expert counselling (managing diversity): Maga. Surur Abdul-Hussain
Project management: Andrea Speetgens_rhizom

last update: November 24th, 2007