Die Aktion begann bereits im Februar 2016 mit der Beklebung des Schaufenster eines Geschäftslokals in der Glockengasse, einer kleinen Geschäftsstraße in 1020 Wien. 400 weiße Piktogramme in der Form gefallener Menschen wurden vollflächig aufgeklebt um die Zahl der ersten Opfer der europäischen Flüchtlingspolitik im aktuellen Jahr fassbarer zu machen.

Da es sich bei dieser Zahl um eine Momentaufnahme handelte und das Sterben im Mittelmeer aufgrund fehlender Gegenmaßnahmen weiter ging und weiter gehen wird, wurden in Folge, noch weitere Schaufensterflächen im Bereich Glockengasse und Umgebung beklebt und bis zum Ende des Jahres 2016 wird die Beklebungsaktion weitergeführt werden.

Die Darstellung und Positionierung des Piktogramms nimmt Bezug auf das traurig berühmte Bild von Aylan Kurdi, ein syrisch-kurdisches Flüchtlingskind, das im Alter von 3 Jahren bei einem (alltäglichen) Unglück auf einem Schlepperboot ums Leben kam und tot am Strand in der Nähe von Bodrum in der Türkei aufgefunden wurde.

Waren es bisher Bilder von lebenden Menschen die in “unsere” Länder einströmten, denen in populistischer Manier eine bedrohliche Parallel-Bilderwelt über diverse Medien aufkaschiert wurden, war dieses Bild eines der Ersten, das der Berichterstattung für kurze Zeit einen Drall in die entgegengesetzte Richtung verliehen hat.

Obgleich mit 2. September 2015 erst geschehen, dominieren längst wieder die bedrohlichen Zahlenspiele, die mit Bildern von Lebenden illustriert werden.

Genau ein halbes Jahr später äußert sich der Konzeptkünstler Ai Weiwei mit einem fotografischen Zitat, indem er in Griechenland, dem ursprünglichen Zielland von Aylan Kurdi, das Foto von damals mit seinem eigenen Körper am Strand liegend nachstellt.

400 – the image behind | They sought peace and found death

According to data from refugee organisations such as UNHCR and IOM, 400 refugees had already died on the Mediterranean route in 2016 until 16 February 2016. European governments, on their part, submit figures to limit the number of refugees – Horst Seehofer (Germany): 200,000, Asylum Summit Austria: 37,500, former Prime Minister Manuel Valls (France): 30,000. In September 2015, Angela Merkel claimed “We can do it”. Yet, barely six months later, it seems as if we, or the governments, respectively, are merely achieving to name numbers and upper limits in order to provide the citizens living within the Schengen borders with an undefined sense of security.

Such statistical sedatives are used to blur the suffering of ‘foreigners’. What is often forgotten or obscured in a very cynical way, however: those statistics are about actual individuals who share an adverse fate.

It is questionable whether an introduction of caps would even be covered by international law altogether. After all, each of the 28 EU Member States have signed the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (‘1951 Refugee Convention’) and its 1967 Protocol. Against the backdrop of these facts, the question arises whether the slogan of the welcome or recognition culture titled “Refugees Welcome” should not rather be renamed to “Justice Welcome“.

An attempt at visualisation

Statistical figures are devoid of any emotion. As long as the number remains an abstract combination of figures, it divests itself of any purport. Conversely, the moment the number is translated into an image, it regains its original thrust. 400 white pictograms in the shape of those who had died were affixed to the shop window of a premise in Vienna’s second district to visualise those statistics in the most conventional and comprehensible way.

The depiction and positioning of the pictogram refers to Aylan Kurdi, a Syrian-Kurdish refugee child, who had died on a tug boat at the age of 3 in a (commonplace) accident and was later found dead on a beach near Bodrum in Turkey. While, up until then, images of an influx of living people into our countries had been mounted as threatening parallel image worlds via various media in populistic manner, this image was one of the first to spin news reporting in the opposite direction, albeit only for a briefly.

Although this had just happened on 2 September 2015, the menacing numbers game, illustrated with pictures of the living, gained upper hand again shortly thereafter. Exactly half a year later, the conceptual artist Ai Weiwei expresses himself with a photographic quotation by recreating the original photo with his own body lying on the beach in Greece, the country to whose beaches Aylan Kurdi had been washed ashore.

There are ongoing media debates whether the galvanising image of a dead child can be shown, only to then use images of the living shortly thereafter and thus (re-)creating threatening, anti-refugee scenarios.

It hence only seems logical to keep the images of all casualties present in public perception in a representative form – at least, until this dying has finally come to an end. In 50 years, it will have become too late to erect a memorial for this European tragedy that, already today, is omnipresent and of which we are fully aware.

In addition to the visualisation with pictograms, a performative event took place on 26 June 2016. The incomprehensible figures were to be made tangible through the presence of real persons in a public street. Almost 200 participants followed the invitation, and were lined up in 32 rows with 6 people each in a choreographed setting. This ‘living installation’ was documented both with photographs and film – a film about being or not being or having been. A film about every single attempt at a failed arrival in a supposedly peaceful society.

400 – the image behind | Tražiše mir i nađoše smrt

Prema podacima humanitarnih organizacija UNHCR i IOM, na mediteranskoj ruti u 2016. godini se već do 16. februara utopilo 400 izbjeglica i migranata.

Vlade država Evropske unije su dale prijedloge koji “ograničavaju broj izbjeglica”: Horst Seehofer (Njemačka) 200.000; Austrijska vlada 37.500; Premijer Manuel Valls
(Francuska) 30.000.

“Uspjećemo” rekla je Angela Merkel u septembru 2015., ali nakon pola godine čini se da mi, odnosno vlade Evropske unije, uspijevamo samo u određivanju limita i cifara koji građanima Šengena treba da pruže nedefinisanu i nejasnu sigurnost. Dirigovani statistički podaci služe za prikrivanje stradanja “drugih”. Ono što se često zaboravlja, odnosno veoma cinično izostavlja, je da iza ovih brojki stoje ljudi, odnosno njihovi životi i sudbine.

Osim toga, pitanje je da li je sprovođenje ovih ograničenja legalno po međunarodnom pravu. Na kraju, svih 28 zemalja članica EU su potpisale Konvenciju o statusu izbjeglica (Ženeva, 1951.), kao i Protokol iz 1967.

Kada sagledamo ove činjenice postavlja se pitanje da li parola takozvanih kultura prepoznavanja i dobodošlice “refugees welcome” trebalo da glasi “justice welcome”.

400 osoba pokušaj vizualizacije

Statistički podaci su bezlični. Dokle god su brojevi u svojoj abstraktnoj formi kombinacije cifara, mogu imati bilo koje značenje. Onog trenutka kada se broj pretvori u sliku, dobija svoje prvobitno značenje. Na izlog jedne radnje u Glockengasse ulici je zaljepljeno 400 bijelih piktograma u obliku palih ljudi – najkonvencionalniji i najjasniji način vizualizacije numeričke vrijednosti.

Prezentacija i pozicioniranje piktograma se odnosi na Aylana Kurdi, sirijskokurdskog djeteta, trogodišnjaka koji se udavio u nesreći koje se desila brodu punom izbjeglica i pronađen je mrtav na plaži u blizini Bodruma u Turskoj.

Da li je slikama preživjelih, do sada plasiranim u “našim” zemljama u populističkom maniru preko različitih medija, stvorena slika prijetećeg paralelnog univerzuma? Da li je ova slika jedna od prvih koja je izvještavanje na kratko okrenula u suprotnom smijeru? Iako se desilo 2. Septembra 2015., dominiraju igre prijetećih brojki, koje se ilustruju slikama preživjelih. Tačno pola godine kasnije, konceptualni umjetnik Ai Wiewei predstavlja fotografski citat, u kom on u Grčkoj, inicijalnoj finalnoj destinaciji Ayalana Kurdija, postavlja svoje tijelo na plaži u istu pozu.

Opet počinju debate po medijima, koji dokazuju moralne vrijednosti na jednoj jedinoj
uznemirujućoj fotografiji mrtvog djeteta, da bi odmah nakon toga ponovo iskoristili slike preživjelih, skicirajući izbjegličkoneprijateljski scenario.

Jedino što se čini logično je, u jedanom reprezentativnom obliku u javnom prostoru
prikazivati sve preminule dok se ovim smrtima ne stane u kraj. Za 50 godina će ovoj
evropskoj tragediji biti prekasno dizati spomenik, jer je već danas svuda prisutna i mi smo je svjesni.