On November 29th, 2022 we got a message with a large batch of images from the Lungitz train station. Most looked like you’d expect, empty spaces filled with traces of the past here and there. In one image though, there were about twenty to thirty bags pushed into the corner of a small room. The message mentioned how these bags were filled with leftovers from excavations of the train tracks. During renovations back in 2018, a layer of ash was dug up, and everyone was afraid it was from the neighboring concentration camps.

--------------------Using the train station in Lungitz as a central point, the project started by looking for a clear gesture. An image or frame that would open up questions about how violence and trauma are both hidden and given away in the immediate setting of the Lungitz Bahnhof / Gusen III Concentration Camp. We asked if we could silence the building by covering all of the windows except for a single view to where the prison yard had been. We also asked a group of artists to join us in making objects and experiences to give away and local experts on the Holocaust to hold tours, to collectively explore how multiple directions of time and identity can come into contact with residents and travelers.

------------It’s strange to work on a project like this for a festival meant to celebrate the region. Throughout the process, we’ve been having a lot of conversations about memory being something that’s active. How it has to be continually worked at and renewed. How it needs to be given away over and over again to remain visible. How it can be non-competitive. We've been talking about the role of art, different forms of grieving, mourning, and joy. The sadness of humor and the commodification of remembrance.

-------------------------As the past catches up to the present, the train arrives and leaves more or less on schedule every day. The Lungitz station’s been empty for a while now while it waits to be torn down. One of the last remaining architectural witnesses flattened into a park and ride. As artists, we’re aware of the impossibility of finding an adequate shape or form to express the magnitude of loss that happened here. We nevertheless feel the need to try.

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Participating Artists:
Brishty Alam, Abdul Sharif Oluwafemi Baruwa, Flo Karl Berger, Marc-Alexandre Dumoulin, Baptiste El Baz, Julia S. Goodman, Edgar Lessig, Maggessi/Morusiewicz, Stephanie Misa, Johanna Tinzl, Antoine Turillon, Rosabel Rosalind, Anna Weberberger, Seth Weiner