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During the Capital of Culture year, Linz put up some striking signage to let people know just where they were. The city limits signs along major roads into town were supplemented by new ones spelling out “Linz” in many of the foreign languages and alphabets in use here.

Throughout the Capital of Culture year, the most important routes into Linz were aptly designated. Additional signage in what were, for most citydwellers, foreign languages was both a token of hospitality addressed to the Capital of Culture’s many visitors but was also indicative of how much Linz appreciates its own multicultural makeup. The alphabets used—for example, Chinese, Sinhalese, Greek, Armenian and Lao—were a clear sign of Linz’s ethnic diversity. Actively confronting the multilingual facts of modern urban life calls for basic democratic attitudes that are desirable and even necessary in many facets of citydwellers’ coexistence. Thus, COMING AND GOING was also a test of how cosmopolitan the majority of Linzers really were in their roles as Europe’s hosts and hostesses.


WAS // Multilingual City Limits Signs
WHEN // December 18, 2008 - December 31, 2009
WHERE // Along 18 major roads into Linz
www.kommenundgehen.at

IDEA / CONCEPT / REALIZATION // Social Impact - Daniela Deutsch, Harald Schmutzhard

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