No Hope No Fear

Péter Oroszlány

“Are you 1-heimisch or 2-heimisch?“

The public installation aims at getting rid of the strict boundary between “natives” and “strangers”. There is a tendency in the right- wing populist discourse to construct symbolic walls between “us” and “them” by creating a homogenous identity of the “natives” and of groups and minorities from “outside”. 

The aim of the project is to act against this rhetoric, and visualize the heterogeneity of people living in Austria. It is not about questioning citizenship, but against constructed narratives of homogenous identities. As a project title I use a quote from the comedian Karl Valentin: “Fremd ist der Fremde nur in der Fremde”.

By playing with the word “Fremder” (stranger) I want to show the relativity of being a stranger or a native (“Einheimischer”). The wordplay “1-heimisch” – “2-heimisch” dissolves the artificial differentiation of “us” and “them”, and gives an opportunity for the participants to rethink their own position within the Austrian society. By introducing the phrase “2-heimisch” I emphasize, that defining identities cannot be narrowed down on one factor, people should be proud of being “2- or more-heimisch” (feeling native to two or more places).

The wordplay "1-heimisch" – "2-heimisch" dissolves the artificial differentiation of "us" and "them".

To refer to the real and symbolic walls built up by politics, a fence of five to ten metres is used as a display for this interactive installation. On both sides of the fence there are signs saying “1-heimisch” and “2-heimisch”. The passersby are asked to mark how manifold they themselves are. To involve the people, root-salad (beetroots, carrots,...) is served in plastic cups. After finishing the salad they are asked to place their empty cup in the grids of the fence and thus mark their position.

Time
Summer 2016
Location
Vienna
Team
Péter Oroszlány
Support: Tinka Legvart
Anna Misovicz
Klelija Khivkovikj
Michel Gölz
Enrico Tomassini