On August 27, 2015, Austria was marked by a terrible event. On the A4 near Parndorf, 71 people were found dead in a refrigerated truck. The refugees had suffocated inside. Shortly after this discovery, borders were opened, as a result of which numerous people came to Europe and also to Austria. In 2015 and 2016, around 1.3 million people each sought protection in Europe. Since then, the numbers have fallen sharply again. The borders were closed, and refugee policy became more restrictive. In many places, the initial willingness to help turned into rejection and even hostility.

A year ago, we remembered the dead of Parndorf in a motorway parking lot on the A4 not far from this breakdown bay: On September 28, 2018, a small group of people gathered there around a ship installation, the Noah's Ark 2.0. It was built in July 2018 by asylum seekers from the Neusiedl am See region under the direction of the artist Hüseyin Işık over four consecutive weekends as a symbol of the protective ship that saves people from the flood; but also as a reminder of the boats with which many of the participants had crossed the Mediterranean, often adventurous, hopelessly overcrowded ship constructions. "The boat is not full," read a banner, "The path to freedom must not become the path to death" was the overarching motto.

Words of escape

The event was not limited to the exhibition of the installation. The dead were also to be remembered with words. Visitors were therefore invited to read texts on the subject of escape and expulsion. Texts by well-known authors as well as new texts could be heard; Christa Zettel read from her text "Escape", which she had written especially for the event.

Christa Wendelin, Richard Bodyn, Willi Stelzhammer and Hüseyin Işık also took part in the reading, as did two people who once sought refuge in Austria: Saleh Shlash and Wasiat Dawodu (the latter had her text read out because she could not be there herself).

In a way, these voices were the starting point for viel-stimmig. Because these voices are mostly lost in media coverage. The texts of these two victims were impressive. And such voices are heard far too rarely.

The poem that Saleh Shlash himself recited at the event represents both of them:

Think of a sea without water,

of a person without friends,

of a night without sleep.

Think of a heart without love

And

Think of me without you.

The journey to freedom must not be the journey to death

Noah's Ark 2.0

The boat is not full