sam bunn

Kathi and I were invited to make a project with a youth centre, Bunte Fabrik, in Kapfenberg, Austria. The goal was to work with the young people at the centre to make some kind of art-thing happen in the public space. We made a number of visits to the town, to look around and try to understand what might work. On one visit, a group of 'Jugend' from Bunte Fabrik escorted us on a tour of the local area. It was of course somewhat awkward, as we had interrupted their game of Fifa. We headed off after the full-time whistle and after a while all started to warm to one another.

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Their primary objective was to secure a spot with outdoor unlimited Wi-fi. Another funny idea was that their names should be written in gold. In the end, after various other ideas including statues of them all, purpose built caves and so on, we returned to the idea of the plaques as being the most poetic and light of all possible moves. On our next visit we couted the area for suitably poetic spots, which we also worked hard to name appropriately. For example, one spot might be dedicated to the wind running through it, another (a pylon) to 'energy'.

After that the youth at the centre were invited to pick a spot they found particularly appealing to have dedicated to them. The resultant spots are those you can see in the video or on the photos. Unfortunately no-one selected 'the swan,' the underwater stone ('the passage of time') or the tunnel in the side of the mountain ('depth'). But hey, you can't have everything.