xi.
Hospitality and the
politics of curfew,
Nina Kolowratnik &
Johannes Pointl
21-28.05.2021,
workshop
[Nina Valerie Kolowratnik is an architectural
researcher and currently a PhD candidate
in Law at Ghent University's Human
Rights Centre.]
[Johannes Pointl is senior Architect at
Studio VlayStreeruwitz and Assistant
Professor at TU Wien.]
A workshop by Nina Kolowratnik and Johannes Pointl with students from Vienna University of Technology (AT), the Centre for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths (University of London, UK) and the Free University of Bolzano/Bozen (IT), organized in the framework of hostileenvironmnets.eu.
The ongoing global pandemic has laid bare an array of injustices and shortcomings in the political and societal domain across the European continent and beyond. Yet the challenges of displaced people have largely remained overlooked in the past year. While the pandemic has been characterized by temporary rules and spatial regulations of everyday life for the general public, this represents a permanent condition for refugees they are finding themselves in from the first day of arrival.
This workshop aims to shed light on structural problems within European asylum regimes by dissecting how the COVID-19 pande- mic has functioned as an accelerator of the already precarious state of refuge in Europe, in particular in relation to asylum seekers’ accommodation and mobility.
Together we will look at issues of privatization of accommodation and the neo-liberalization of care for refugees, the tightening of control mechanisms and the increase of dependency relationships within refugee shelters, illicit restrictions on mobility and the use of public space, as well as limited accessibility to services of legal and psychological counselling – all considered under the pretext of the fight against the pandemic.
We will build on the working methodology and research material generated by the long-term research and teaching project “Fluchtraum Österreich”, which is focusing on asylum accommodations that formerly hosted tourists in Austria – a frequent form of accommodation in Austria yet rather rare in other European countries. Over the course of 3 years, the Fluchtraum Österreich team visited 17 asylum accommodations in Vienna as well in remote areas of the Austrian countryside. During and after these field visits extensive interviews have been conducted that became the basis of spatial mappings and focused on guest/ host relationships and the lack of a legally binding framework for spatial standards and qualities of refugee accommodation.
Within this workshop participants will investi- gate the aggravated conditions of confinement and exclusion through pandemic measures that refugees are facing in their accommodation and beyond, in the Austrian, UK and Italian context. Over the course of a week, participants will work in groups on visual ethnographies and spatial notations that allow for an in-depth reading of the complex interplay of social, spatial, legal, political and health-policy related layers of forced isolation.
PROVISIONAL SCHEDULE
21 May (all day) – Introductions and initial presentations by workshop leaders
25, 26 or 27 May – Group tutorials
28 May (all day) – Final presentations and discussions
Image Credit: Johannes Puchleiter
xi.
HOSPITALITY AND THE POLITICS OF CURFEW,
NINA KOLOWRATNIK &
JOHANNES POINTL
21-28.05.2021,
workshop
[Nina Valerie Kolowratnik is an architectural
researcher and currently a PhD candidate
in Law at Ghent University's Human
Rights Centre.]
[Johannes Pointl is senior Architect at
Studio VlayStreeruwitz and Assistant
Professor at TU Wien.]
A workshop by Nina Kolowratnik and Johannes Pointl with students from Vienna University of Technology (AT), the Centre for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths (University of London, UK) and the Free University of Bolzano/Bozen (IT), organized in the framework of hostileenvironmnets.eu.
The ongoing global pandemic has laid bare an array of injustices and shortcomings in the political and societal domain across the European continent and beyond. Yet the challenges of displaced people have largely remained overlooked in the past year. While the pandemic has been characterized by temporary rules and spatial regulations of everyday life for the general public, this represents a permanent condition for refugees they are finding themselves in from the first day of arrival.
This workshop aims to shed light on structural problems within European asylum regimes by dissecting how the COVID-19 pande- mic has functioned as an accelerator of the already precarious state of refuge in Europe, in particular in relation to asylum seekers’ accommodation and mobility.
Together we will look at issues of privatization of accommodation and the neo-liberalization of care for refugees, the tightening of control mechanisms and the increase of dependency relationships within refugee shelters, illicit restrictions on mobility and the use of public space, as well as limited accessibility to services of legal and psychological counselling – all considered under the pretext of the fight against the pandemic.
We will build on the working methodology and research material generated by the long-term research and teaching project “Fluchtraum Österreich”, which is focusing on asylum accommodations that formerly hosted tourists in Austria – a frequent form of accommodation in Austria yet rather rare in other European countries. Over the course of 3 years, the Fluchtraum Österreich team visited 17 asylum accommodations in Vienna as well in remote areas of the Austrian countryside. During and after these field visits extensive interviews have been conducted that became the basis of spatial mappings and focused on guest/ host relationships and the lack of a legally binding framework for spatial standards and qualities of refugee accommodation.
Within this workshop participants will investi- gate the aggravated conditions of confinement and exclusion through pandemic measures that refugees are facing in their accommodation and beyond, in the Austrian, UK and Italian context. Over the course of a week, participants will work in groups on visual ethnographies and spatial notations that allow for an in-depth reading of the complex interplay of social, spatial, legal, political and health-policy related layers of forced isolation.
PROVISIONAL SCHEDULE
21 May (all day) – Introductions and initial presentations by workshop leaders
25, 26 or 27 May – Group tutorials
28 May (all day) – Final presentations and discussions
Image Credit: Johannes Puchleiter