Kommen und gehen – Coming and Going

Kommen und Gehen
Copyright: Social Impact

18th December 08 – end of 09
Idea / Concept / Realization: Social Impact

In the Capital of Culture Year Linz will attract attention by new and unusual signs. To be more specific, the appearance of the place-name signs at Linz’s entry points will be changed. Additional place-name signs in one of the many languages used in spoken and written form in Linz will be added to the existing ones.
During the entire Capital of Culture Year the most important access routes leading into Linz will be given new names. These additional street names in – from the point of view of the majority of citizens – foreign languages are meant to signal on the one hand respect for the ethnic complexity of present-day Linz’s population and on the other a hospitable welcome for visitors to the Capital of Culture. The scripts in use will be evidence of the wide range of ethnic origins of Linz’s residents; they will include Chinese, Sinhalese, Greek, Armenian and Laotic. The pro-active confrontation of a polyglot situation demands the kind of democratic attitude that is so needed and so necessary in all areas of a life lived together rather than merely side by side. Before the new signs go up on 18th December 2008 a socio-political debate with the population of Linz will be conducted. COMING AND GOING is therefore not only a sign of respect for all people living in Linz but also a test case to establish how cosmopolitan the majority of Linzers really are in their roles as hostesses and hosts of Europe.

The salient point in the project COMING AND GOING is the ‘calling in question’ of both actual and mental demarcation lines. Borders are constructs that have evolved in the course of history. They have been subject time and again to far-reaching alterations in the wake of different developments, such as war and power struggles. These alterations can be traced to this day in the etymology of place names and in the history of scripts. The term ‘language barrier’ is relevant as well in this context. The project COMING AND GOING is also meant as an impulse to rethink borders and barriers and to admit new developments.

WHERE //
17 access routes

CREW //
Daniela Deutsch (Head of Project)

A Linz09 project

www.social-impact.at