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Virginia Lui and Michel Gölz offered passers-by on Favoritenstrasse a stand to deposit their complaintsin the time preceding the Austrian presidential elections.

In the winter of 2016/17, Virginia Lui and Michel Gölz regularly set up their stand on Favoritenstraße and asked passers-by to deposit all kinds of complaints. Guided by their curiosity, they experimented with ways of relating and speaking to, an “other”. Always negotiating seriousness and irony, they found moments of surprising reconciliation and consistent misunderstanding.

The project proved immediately popular as it took place during the Federal Presidential elections and many people took the opportunity to frankly express their opinions. Very quickly, the complaining station became a meeting point where contrasting points of view clashed. The polite situation that was created by the team led people to listen and talk to one another. Perhaps no one consented with the other´s views but one result achieved was that aggressive attitudes often relaxed to an exchange and people came back again and again. Their voices entered other discourses by being replayed in academic contexts.

Time

Semester 1 2016

Location

Favoritenstraße Vienna

Team

Virginia Lui& Michel Gölz