Welcome to Paradise

Welcome to paradise? How are you supposed to feel welcome when you are standing in front of closed doors: "enclosed", "area surrounded by walls" is the actual meaning of the ancient Iranian roots of our word "paradise". Throughout its etymological development, "paradise" in the various languages is a place that is hermetically sealed off, a garden that keeps out everything negative. 

For thousands of people, Europe is a paradise to which they hope to gain access, for which they usually give not only all their possessions, but also their lives. Thousands of people crammed into overloaded ships traveling across the sea, people whose names we never learn, whose existence hangs by a thread. 

The vernissage was accompanied by a performance with Daniel Pfeiffer based on an idea by Tanja Boukal.

Tina Teufel put it in a nutshell at the opening: "The baroque-looking, golden frame seems like a mockery of the display of human misery, while in the political reality of the European Union, human rights are violated so as not to allow any suspected troublemakers to enter our paradise."
 

^{Pictures 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11: ©2010 Walter Karnthaler}