A permanent/temporary installation, location: Graz St. Leonhard Container Village
A real-world political and artistic intervention. A development project involving the inhabitants of Graz St. Leonhard Container Village, outside the institutional networks. This permanent container installation, conceived as a social sculpture, will be made available as survival containers to the people currently living in old building site vehicles.
The word network symbolises the situation of those lost human resources that have fallen through the net due to their inability to contribute to the system of capital gain. These people are not wanted by the general public. They are seen as disturbing the civilised face of our towns and cities and are driven out of the inner city to the periphery, not only losing contact with the social net in the process, but also the network of energy and communications.
Like the nomads that once lived in tents, and still do today, we, too, the modern-day nomads at the close of the twentieth century, must critically examine our rapidly changing social structure, looking more closely at these temporary forms of housing and living.
Lightweight, transportable, standardised units. The mobile home for mobile people, caravans, dormobiles or containers - like the nomad tents of yesteryear - are today gaining importance. It should be a matter of concern to all creative individuals to further develop on existing container concepts or to devise new ones and to make these socially acceptable so as to create new urban structures.
The objectives of the project are to create a habitat fit for human dwelling by redesigning the interior and exterior, in co-operation with the inhabitants of the village. The old building site vehicles, made of wood and in a very poor general condition, are to be replaced with insulated containers. It is also planned to build and jointly design communication rooms on the premises and also to set up a public phone booth. A library will be installed in the central recreation and communication room. A media link-up, e.g. satellite TV and radio, will be created by setting up a joint receiver with a distributor system.
The final resting place that was established for the deceased inhabitants in the neighbouring cemetery will be redesigned. Part of the work will involve setting up a network of sponsors.
[copyright: erwin posarnig 1996/97]