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Cooperation 2016 Vienna to go – Wien angehen An urban research project on foot to expand the usually limited radius of movement of unaccompanied refugee minors in Vienna. Cooperation partners: WestLicht, Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund (Haus Ottakring), h12 BORG für Musik und Kunst, Architekturzentrum Wien The aim was to empower young people to explore their new city, to walk around it, to occupy it, and to broaden their realm of experience while enhancing their decision-making competence and sense of responsibility for their actions by overcoming boundaries. As this is not always easy — without language and in a foreign culture — we wanted to support them while facilitating encounters with Viennese youths. We showed each other places in Vienna that invite hanging out, use and returning to, and documented these in photographs — we undertook two of these urban expeditions with a class from the Hegelgasse 12 school. They were given tasks in the form of photographs to take as small, mixed groups during these expeditions, and this showed that the medium of photography helped overcome linguistic barriers. A Whatsapp group was formed, which had a networking function that allowed everybody to participate in the explorations, some of which are still underway, on an ongoing basis. A workshop was held at Westlicht to familiarise participants with the analogue and digital possibilities of photography. At the end, the views of the new residents of Vienna were shown as demonstrations of competence and a resource in the form of an exhibition that also had a networking function: in 'Stadtportrait' (city portrait), as the exhibition was entitled, views of Vienna by the young, recently arrived refugees now living in the city came together with the views from the Hegelgasse school class. In keeping with an integrative approach, the results from both groups were combined in one colourful collage, and docked onto the current Az W exhibition 'Zoom! Picturing Architecture and the City' and presented to an interested audience at an opening event. In the course of the project, the participating youths developed more self-confidence and independence, especially in the independent use of the city. According to the supervisors and young people concerned this interest in independently exploring the city is a lasting one. |
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© Tanja Crnogaca |
| © Architekturzentrum Wien 2024 |
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