Foreigners out! Schlingensief's container

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Foreigners out! Schlingensiefs Container was an art and film project in 2000 that took place as part of the Wiener Festwochen . The concept of the project "Please loves Austria" came from Christoph Schlingensief , the film was directed by Paul Poet . The project took over essential elements of the internationally successful television show " Big Brother " in order to criticize this form of entertainment. The primary concern, however, was to point out what, in his view, xenophobia is still widespread in Western cultures.

background

The "Please love Austria" project was installed in Vienna . Shortly before the action took place, the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), headed by Jörg Haider, was elected as the second largest party in the National Council . Through a coalition with the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), the FPÖ became the ruling party. The FPÖ was ostensibly in public criticism because of its xenophobic election campaign. The formation of a government between the ÖVP and the FPÖ triggered strong domestic and foreign policy protests, for example Israel withdrew its ambassador from Vienna, and all EU states limited contact with the Austrian federal government to the bare minimum.

The art project

The concept of the campaign was based heavily on the TV show Big Brother. Asylum seekers acted as candidates who, similar to the “Big Brother” model, were selected from the container through daily public votes - but also from the country in Schlingensief's installation. The voting as well as the camera transmissions from the container were carried out via the website “www.auslaenderraus.at” set up for this purpose. On the first day the site registered over 70,000 hits, the rush led to several server failures.

Furthermore, xenophobic election posters of the FPÖ (e.g. “Stop the abuse of asylum”), an FPÖ flag and a banner with the inscription “Foreigners out” were installed on the container. A banner with the SS motto “Our honor means loyalty” was also put up, which led to a lawsuit by the FPÖ. Schlingensief then raised the question of whether the FPÖ is suing itself because Ernest Windholz , FP chairman from Lower Austria, had used this saying himself.

Every day, various personalities from cultural life were guests in the container, who spent a day with the container residents, such as Daniel Cohn-Bendit , Elfriede Jelinek , Gregor Gysi , Josef Bierbichler or Paulus Manker .

In addition, racist speeches by then FPÖ chairman Jörg Haider were quoted by Schlingensief around the clock .

The film

The film documents on the one hand the art action and the reactions of the public, on the other hand positions of different personalities are shown. These range from the philosopher Burghart Schmidt and friends of Schlingensief to representatives of various political parties.

Awards

literature

Matthias Lilienthal, Claus Philipp: Schlingensief's foreigners out. Please love Austria. Documentation (Suhrkamp 2210), Frankfurt a. M .: Suhrkamp 2000.

Lore Knapp and Sarah Pogoda: Christoph Schlingensief crossing borders. The Viennese campaign "Please love Austria. First Austrian Coalition Week" and Elfriede Jelinek's puppet play "I love Austria", in: Germanistische Mitteilungen. Journal for German Language, Literature and Culture 41/1, 75–89.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Benjamin Moldenhauer: Schlingensief's asylum container: "You German pig, you! You artist!" In: Spiegel Online . December 28, 2015 ( spiegel.de [accessed July 18, 2019]).
  2. ↑ Foreigners out! Schlingensiefs Container (Foreigners Out! Schlingensief's Container). 2001. Directed by Paul Poet | MoMA. Retrieved July 18, 2019 .