Regarding the juridical pain that we can only acquiesce
a plateau of pain
suddenly
explodes inside me
in silent,
delivered by
a piece of paper.
the hand that signed,
my hand that held.
Almost one-third of Vienna’s population do not possess Austrian citizenship and are therefore called Fremde. More than half of the Fremde are not from other EU countries and are subjected to strict visa and residence permit application procedures every year. They make up almost one-fifth of the overall population of Vienna and are part of the social and economic life, obliged to pay taxes, but cannot take part in law-making and legalization processes. They are called Ausländer.
The project aims to conceptualize the unspoken juridical stress and fear during visa procedures and the invisible reality of immigrants, who are systematically obliged to internalize their second-classness.
The project pain papers is about the power of immigration offices, whose rejection letters cause painful -even traumatic- experience for the applicants, who come to Austria for better residence, study or work opportunities. Whilst these offices exist with the purpose of covering the bureaucratic needs of people, one-fifth of Vienna’s inhabitants are undergoing unfair and exhausting procedures every year. A document, - a piece of paper - that states a person’s visa or residency permit is rejected, that paper’s existence becomes the source of psychological torture and trauma for the person. Their fragile existence is in the hands of officers who sign these documents.
I call these letters and documents pain papers, because they cause a juridical pain that we can only acquiesce
This work is an ongoing community collaboration. Further details of the project can be visited online:
