Places we love
Basic information
Project Title
Places we love
Category
Regaining a sense of belonging
Project Description
In a sense, we live in a paradox, never as connected, yet so many people feel displaced, disintegrated, and disconnected. I made this project to offer some sort of platform for others to share their stories of belonging and what is this "home" for them.
Geographical Scope
Regional
Project Region
Filming was done in Vienna and Serbia but the people that I filmed come from different countries, so it's an international or universal project., Austria
Urban or rural issues
It addresses urban-rural linkages
Physical or other transformations
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
EU Programme or fund
No
Description of the project
Summary
I had the opportunity to show one of my video artworks at a group exhibition in Vienna in 2021. This video essay deals with my personal questions of home and belonging. A child from a broken home and raised by a single mother, I moved a lot, which resulted in never really knowing what is home, or that everything is or can be home. At some point, I madly fell in love with a guy that I really believed was a home to me, and after losing this "home" an idea arose for this artwork to be created. After showing the work so many people approached me with the need to express what they felt, what was their reflections and impressions, and most importantly what is this "home" to them. After a few days, I decided to create new work, providing them a platform to share these beautiful and important stories. I borrowed a camera and started filming. As a result, I got 9 people filmed in Vienna, and 6 in Serbia, and now after moving to Austria, I'm about to continue this process by including more people and letting this project get more visibility and purpose. What I got is a video series of people sharing their stories of belonging, being filmed in the place of their choice, doing activities they want to do, and speaking in their native languages. It never stops to amaze me how different all of the ideas were, how many unique stories people have to share, and in this process of celebrating our diversity, we really found our connection, that no matter who we are, where we come from, we all need to belong, we all need the home.
Key objectives for sustainability
This project is a platform created for others to freely explore and share their ideas of home and belonging. While in fact, everyone is a unique storyteller, every story covers some important questions we have on life today.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
As an author, and someone who was filming this series, I was putting all of my knowledge, more than 10 years of art education and practice into how I wanted this series to look. I choose to film in black and white and in that way highlight the story and intimacy of sharing. In the end, we got high-quality artistic work as a result of collective creativity.
Key objectives for inclusion
I was choosing some of the people, but the majority of them chose me, wanting to share something important with us. The only thing I insisted to be followed from the beginning is that all of the interviews be done in their native languages. This project was from the start point imagined and realized as a celebration of our differences but very much a connective point with our struggle to find this "home" we are all searching for.
Results in relation to category
Collaborators of this project get the opportunity to be heard and their narratives are acknowledged and respected. But the true outcome was imagined differently, sadly without financial support this was not possible to achieve. Not only that the project planned to get bigger visibility, but the idea was to make it much more than a video series. For filming I was hoping, or I still am, that it will work more as an open call for inclusion of everyone who wants to add their story, no matter of geographical or any other specificity. Then all of these videos would be part of a bigger project, a sort of web base of different contributions on the topic of home and sense of belonging, people would be called to present their artworks or papers dealing with this topic, and I would make interviews, and depending on how much it develops, I would use the opportunity to make some live presentations, publications, exhibitions and other type of presenting our collective work.
How Citizens benefit
In a time when migration is so common when even the people who never leave their place of birth are feeling displaced, I think this project is necessary. What we get from art that has a social role is I think very powerful influence on political structures, but also on different levels integrational for so many different people to find their place of belonging in just a fact of knowing that they are not alone in this search.
Physical or other transformations
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
Innovative character
This project was not planned, the complete first season was filmed in a country I was visiting at the moment, with a borrowed camera. There were only two creative decisions that I requested to be followed, I filmed everything in B&W and asked everyone to use their native language for the interview. The place where we will film, an activity they want to do, the story they want to share... everything was left for them to decide. I did all of the work alone, from organization to filming and editing at the end with 0 budget or any kind of commercial idea behind it. People I meet have a need to express and I recognize the seriousness of this need, other than that and personal curiousness there were no other motives for the creation of this work.
Disciplines/knowledge reflected
Art direction, filming, photography, visual art, poetics, art writing, performing, sociological, philosophical, and psychological methods, very diverse disciplines are connected in the creation of this work, not only one I have but of all participants too.
Methodology used
As already mentioned, in the beginning, people approached me with the need to share their stories, later I started inviting new people to think about do they wanted to be involved with the creation of this project. Once I found the new person who wished to be filmed, we got to the location they chose, and filming started. Sometimes they want me to record their story, sometimes they do it alone and send me the audio file. I was inclusive from the beginning, letting everyone who wanted to participate, and trying to not influence anything on the set, in a way making myself as much as it was possible - an invisible observer.
How stakeholders are engaged
This was independent work I created with various individuals.
Global challenges
Rethinking the concept of home, and asking different questions about belonging, all of the people collaborating on this project offer new ideas and solutions that we can use as inspiration to ask ourselves where we stand. Migration is very present in contemporary society, no matter where you go you will find people who are displaced, and it doesn't necessarily mean they moved there, people can have that feeling in their own home, among their family or friends. It's only logical to strive for something greater, better, something that will bring us fulfillment, a sense of purpose in a way. So we are usually trying to find people who are equally lost as we are, and that makes us feel like we are finally having some place of belonging. Being part of something where you can finally fit in as a complete person, having that opportunity to redesign all of the contexts you didn't choose for yourself, could be the true meaning of the word freedom. This project is collecting this and many other layers of struggle when presented with the question of belonging in the 21st century.
Learning transferred to other parties
I treat this project as an ongoing series, I still need to finish episodes filmed in Serbia, and now that I moved to Vienna, being in such a diverse place opened opportunities to continue filming and learning new narratives on this topic. Video as a main product of this artistic research is a very good medium because it's not only easily transformed to different places, or contexts (galleries, festivals, lectures...), but it can also be presented in many different forms by using online platforms. I had no budget for the creation of this project, so my main motivation for this application is the opportunity to give this work the visibility it deserves and a chance for new people to add their stories, so it can hopefully at some point become something like a platform on its own, collecting narratives in many different formats and providing reach base for researchers and society, in general, to use this collective knowledge and find their own position when it comes to this question of belonging.
Keywords
home
belonging
displacement
community
integration
