The video installation Parkbank Transfair will run in Volders between September 26, 2020 and October 10, 2020. A bench on the meadow between the village’s central restaurant “Bräu” and the elementary school and another bench in front of the peripheral refugee home are connected via video. Using video live streaming, it is possible to take a seat next to each other on the two spatially separated benches.

The park bench, as a space and symbol for encounters but also for waiting, becomes a distorted virtual space that expresses the distant relationship in which refugee homes and their residents are to the respective locations.

The project is accompanied by performance theater workshops on the subject of waiting in schools and homes, carried out by Johanna Huter. Images of the wohle project will be shown in documentary form in October at the Volders primary school.

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Text as on object:

Have a seat!    بفرمایید بنشینید    اجلسوا من فضلكم

This bench is connected to another bench at the Kleinvolderberg refugee home via a live broadcast. Maybe someone will sit down with you! When do you have the opportunity to sit together on a bench so carefree and without a face mask in times of Corona? Here technology ensures that there is at least a fully-grown-elephant distance!

Distance - Refugee homes are often on the periphery of communities, away from the center. Refugees and their fates are also being pushed to the edge of our society and, if only as a problem, are at the center of social debates. For a good coexistence, however, it would be desirable if they would arrive in the middle of our society. This existing distance should be shown here and points of contact made possible.

Waiting - Another aspect for which the bank is emblematic is waiting. The lives of refugees are shaped by this condition in a way that is difficult for others to grasp. Waiting for notices, for a secure future, for a meaningful and “normal” life or waiting for one's own family who is still in their country of origin or on the run, determines everyday life in the refugee home. The uncertainties that pervade all areas of life and their own powerlessness in the face of opaque processes represent a considerable burden for those affected.