„Migrazija-yeah-yeah...“ 

The spectre of the “Nation”, the all-purpose weapon for cheap election success and the general cause of every problem there might be … hotly debated, strictly regulated and constantly denigrated. Austria fights the eternal battle for the Austrian ingredient in the pancakes and does not even want to share with those who cook it. What a nerve!

More than a passport in one’s pocket, more than a language on the tongue, more than a history in the memory, more than a certificate proving successful integration – what migration creates from the “Nation” is inspiring, exciting, strengthening, unsettling. Migration does not make life un-cool, but rather uber-cool. In short: regardless whether Istanbul, Chicago, Belgrade or Lagos, Vienna is all this and will become even more.

Migration does not say yes and amen to every “regulation”. It fights for justice, cracks jokes, writes history, makes love and changes everyone. Migration allows old questions to be asked anew: Can everyone work, if they want to? Can everyone choose where they would like to work? Can everyone earn as much so that everyone can also afford to live? Can everyone live where they want to live? Can everyone learn everything which is important knowledge for all? Can everyone love the way they wish to love, hetero, homo, mono, poly or sometimes one way, sometimes another? Can everyone marry, who wishes to do so? Can everyone vote who is governed? Can everyone have a voice, if they have something to say?

WIENWOCHE says yes! and extends an invitation to all* who answer such questions in the same way and who wish to ask more questions. Aesthetically, spiritedly, controversially, joyfully, politically, radically and socially – we say 2014 “Migrazija-yeah-yeah…” and seek smaller or larger projects which annoy, question, inspire, and seek to change, ideally everything, all at once – in recognized or ignored spaces; with themes which are yet to be discussed and stories which are yet to be told.

* By migration we do not mean exclusively those processes of the last decades. Austria has been a land of immigration since at least the middle of the 19th Century. Consequently, our idea of migration includes all the movements that took place in this period, whether those of the Jewish migration or those from the crown lands of the Habsburg Empire.

The “all” in our call does not only mean “all migrants”. All those who understand Austria as a land of immigration and who wish to critically confront the changes in society in their projects are included.