Shelter – A project by Marko Lipuš

Democracy is the rule of the many, but not everyone is granted participation in social life: Approximately 20.000 people in Austria are homeless or lack access to even the most basic necessities. They are virtually invisible in the public consciousness; their situation is ignored. They are often subjected to discrimination and shaming, with the accusation that they are to blame for their own predicament. Instead of focusing on the threat of poverty, those affected are themselves declared the problem. Homeless people become the object of collective devaluation; they are seen as the antithesis of the ideal of our meritocratic society.

The photographic artist Marko Lipuš responds to this injustice with his video installation OBDACH. His aim is to draw attention to the social inequality associated with homelessness and its public (lack of) perception, and to evoke solidarity. Through the slow fading in and out of images of homeless people and their living conditions, which he filmed in various major European cities, he makes these unequal circumstances visible and, in a sense, brings them back from the unconscious, from the repressed. The people in his images are not recognizable; no faces are visible, which on the one hand serves to protect them and, on the other hand, underscores their unacknowledged existence.

The video installations are shown simultaneously in multiple shop windows in public spaces across several cities. Here, art serves as a mediating force. The images, some of which are life-size, appear real and bring the ignored back into focus, pushing art and its reception out of their museum-like comfort zone. Those who subsequently feel compelled to take action can find information on-site about institutions and opportunities to get involved. This information is provided in cooperation with the project's social partners, Caritas and Diakonie.

With the OBDACH project, Marko Lipuš responds to a call for proposals from the Carinthian Cultural Foundation, which accepted the project for funding. The exhibitions will take place successively from November 2023 to spring 2024 in the four Carinthian cities of Klagenfurt, Wolfsberg, Villach, and Spittal an der Drau, as well as in Vienna. No ticket is required; the works are visible from the street. Dates and locations of the installations can be found on the Carinthian Cultural Foundation website, www.kulturstiftung.at , and the artist's website , www.markolipus.com.

Klagenfurt: November 3 – November 19, 2023
Ursulinengasse 4 + Around the castle courtyard (Bahnhofstraße, Burggasse, Domgasse,
Paradeisergasse) + in the castle chapel of the MMKK

Wolfsberg: November 23rd until December 10, 2023
Bambergerstraße 2, Hoher Platz 6 & 14 & Minoritenplatz 1 / Johann-Offner-Straße

Villach: February 15 – February 29, 2024
look.rooms – Draupromenade 6 (from dusk onwards)
Carinthian Summer – Lederergasse 12
city ​​Museum – Widmanngasse 38 (to 07.04.2024)

Spittal an der Drau: expected March 3 – March 17, 2024
Main station 15
New 22th place

Funded by the Carinthian Cultural Foundation