Please Love Austria
Initiator(s)
Christoph Schlingensief
Description
This project, which resembles the Big Brother reality show, was attended by 12 asylum-seekers, that have lived one week in a shipping container nearby the theatre in the center of Vienna. Every day, through a vote by phone or internet people could choose the two least popular people that were ejected and then deported to their native country.
The project was carried out during a period a tense discussion in Austria around immigration and nationalism with Jorg Haider’s nationalist Austria People’s Freedom Party enjoying strong support.
Location
Austria
Goals
To initiate a discussion concerning the stage-managed cynicism of TV and the cynicism of a society that judges asylum policy on the basis of its majority mandate.
Beneficial outcomes
The winner can look forward to a cash prize and the prospect, depending on the availability of volunteers, of Austrian citizenship through marriage.
Maintained by
Vienna International Festival
Users
Immigrants and asylum-seekers in Austria.
Links
http://www.schlingensief.com/index_eng.html