Stadt-Raum-Welt-What? (CITY, SPACE, WORLD, WHAT?)

There is one aspect that is rather important for Stadt – Raum – Welt – What? The public realm does not need to be reduced to only the spaces we can experience in reality; it can also include virtual spaces. Joanna Zabielska and the teenagers from the JOT youth center in Traismauer, a town whose history goes all the way back to Roman times, focused on the future. After taking several walks through town, they discovered that the urban realm consisted of spaces full of virtual possibilities and was a starting point for a shift in perspective. The artist and teenagers developed avatars who have superpowers and can appear in urban spaces. The teenagers invented the looks, powers, and character of the figures and picked the places where the heroes or heroines would appear. Designed with the help of collages and a computer, the figures were then transferred to the virtual world. Through abstract colorful signs that can be found in selected urban spaces with an app specially developed by the artist, the protagonists of a futuristic Traismauer can be called up and brought to life. These unusual signs in urban spaces indicate a virtual second level of reality that was designed by young people with the future of Traismauer in mind. Thanks to the town’s support, the project will run for one year and will hopefully inspire many discussions, while encouraging people to go for a walk.

The project was developed in collaboration with JOT Traismauer.

This short movie, which the film maker and film curator Lotte Schreiber developed together with the Outback youth center and the teenagers of the greater Wolkersdorf area, focuses on the Platz der Generationen (Square of Generations), which was built there a few years ago. This public square connects several local institutions with a secondary school, a state nursing home, and a neighboring residential area. It therefore brings together people from different generations, all of whom use this meeting “area.” The short film, which the artist conceived and realized together with participating children, teenagers, and young adults, addresses the public square in three chapters. It begins with the physical appropriation of the square by several of the kids, who then interact with the street furniture in unconventional ways to create images that represent the different needs associated with such a place. The second chapter transports the private realm into the outdoors in the form of house plants as a way to initiate a subtle shift in, and the intertwining of, the needs of individuals and society. These scenes alternate with short conversations between the teenagers and nursing home residents and among the kids themselves. They talk about the future, about uncertainties, as well as politics, climate, and society. The last chapter brings us full circle. Throughout the entire short movie, a soundtrack of bass sequences and spoken sentences can be heard. These are from the song “Gemeinsam” (Together) by the band Tonado from Wolkersdorf and were written especially for the film and performed at the public square on the last day of shooting. Ich bin die Stadt was then presented to a large audience as a supporting film before the main feature for Youth Day at the Wolkersdorf summer cinema.

Together with the Outback youth center in Wolkersdorf

The Short film can be seen under “Video”!

(finished)

(EVERYONE IS BUILDING A WORLD MADE OUT OF GARBAGE AND WE ARE MAKING IT MORE BEAUTIFUL)

In Traiskirchen, Edith Payer and the teenagers from the KOMET youth center reflected on what would happen if we turned the norms that regulate our daily lives and how we consume things upside-down in a productive way. Payer, who works in different media and is a precise observer of what goes on in our society, and the teenagers created a “friendly memorial of consumption” made out of collected garbage, garden and lawn decorations, mass-produced goods, and found objects. Everyone worked with their hands extensively: hammering, gluing, nailing, turning meanings on their heads, and giving worthless things a second chance. The first results of the artistic approach to these questions were presented on the town’s environment day. In the end, there were three mobile platforms on which an extremely multifaceted and polyphonic ensemble was installed as a detailed cosmos of fantastical and comical creatures. Behind this humorous appearance was also the serious questioning of the rules and norms affecting how we judge something as beautiful or ugly, as something to throw away, or as something new to buy. Thanks to the town’s cooperation, the group of sculptures was able to engage in a dialogue with passersby at a shopping mall in Traiskirchen over the summer, after which the sculptures were presented at the “Garten der Begegnung” (a communal project for refugees and locals alike) for a cultural event called Kultur:Tag Traiskirchen. After that, the sculptural group was dismantled by the artist and the teenagers at the KOMET. Some of the elements found new homes with the participants.  

In cooperation with KOMET Traiskirchen