20. Jun. - 12. Jul. 2020 in Ferlach/Borovlje and Spittal an der Drau/Spital ob Dravi

show.Rooms_regional presented performances, installations and talks on the topic of "Abwunderung" in vacant business premises in an der Drau/Spital ob Dravi and Ferlac/Borovlje as well as online in 2020 (due to COVID-19).

"Abwanderung" (Title of the events) dealt with the shrinking region of Carinthia. There is a so-called "brain drain" from the whole of Carinthia to other federal states, primarily Vienna and Styria. Newspapers ask, "Is Carinthia dying out?" and search for solutions to prevent this: "Decisions against emigration" need to be found, and it's lamented that "there seem to be very few solutions against emigration." "The South is shrinking," and in our time of constant growth, this is a problem. Population growth only occurred through immigration in 2015 and 2016, when many refugees arrived.

Accordingly, in 2020, show.Rooms_regional explored the question in the cities of Ferlach/Borovlje and Spittal an der Drau/Špital ob Dravi as part of CarinthiJa 2020: Who leaves and why, who comes and why? What are the personal stories, conditions, and expectations that make people stay or leave these two cities? Are there differences and similarities in these two cities, which are linguistically similar and yet so different in terms of bilingualism? How much do they know about each other? In doing so, show.Rooms spans a time horizon that reaches back from the present day to the year 1920 and searches for motives. The connecting element between the two cities was the Frei.Raum Otelo (Open Technology Lab), which is located in both cities. Here, regional community activities can be given space and used for this purpose. 

Online spaces/real spaces and people:

show.Rooms_online:
Due to the COVID-19 situation in spring 2020, which resulted in a temporary ban of events and later required a minimum distance of one meter between audience members, show.Rooms "migrated" to the virtual space on 2 evenings for ONLINE live streaming sessions.
speech.less.Room 1: concert and sound Nina Polaschegg and Bruno Strobl from a studio
speech.less.Room 2: singing and organ Ingrid Mack and Apostolos Kallos from a church
speak.Room 1: "Brain Drain in Carinthia", a lecture by Birgit Aigner-Walder from an empty university
speak.Room 2: “No unusual family history”, a text and reading by Maria Clar from her home
waiting.Room: Storytelling and encounters with personal stories by Kurt Gasser, Danijela Misić, Cili Regouz, Anja Subasić, Anja Winkler, Thomas Winkler from their homes
 

show.Rooms anlaog: 
These rooms could be visited in real life.
come.Room 1: Installation and picture on the topic of migration by Monika Pegam in Ferlachj/Borovlje at an arts and crafts house
come.Room 2: Installation on the topic of migration by Edina Karac and Ulrike Bernhard in Spittal at an empty sales room
move.Room: video installation by Andreas Hudelist and Susanne Kremer at the train stations in Spittal and Ferlach/Borovlje
neighbour.Room: Barbara Ambrusch Rapp designs 2 door installations in each of the two cities

play.Room: Performances as immersive theater on the subject of emigration. A door installation opened up a performance space that extended from the installation to the train station of the respective city and was immersively permeated by performers. Equipped with a suitcase, the audience moved within this area, made contact with the performers and also visited the two come.Rooms. Director: Katrin Ackerl Konstantin, Assistants: Kerstin Anderwald, Maria Leeb, Performers: Max Achatz, Amalia Contarini, Alenka Hain, Martin Schinagl, Gernot Piff

Accompanying:
schau.Stadt.Raum: Workshops and reflection rounds in both cities for sustainable development with Alfred and Ruth Rindlisbacher
Publication of edition show.Rooms: Texts by the show.Rooms team on the topic, edited by Andreas Hudelist, translated by Amalija Maček. The small publication was available for free at the doorinstallations of neighbour.Room in both cities. 

The project was funded by: Carinthija 2020, BMKÖS - Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport of the Republic of Austria; Province of Carinthia, Federal State and European Union, LAG: Nockregion and Region lower Carinthia, Cities of Ferlach/Borovlje and Spittal an der Drau, Otelos in both cities.

show.Rooms_regional is an intervention on a marginalized topic in several vacant business premises of a city together with regional artists, scientists and associations that work on the topic. A more detailed explanation of the format can be found here.