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<FONT COLOR="#FFFF00"><FONT FACE="Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:24.0px'><H2>BAODO im N I L<BR>
</H2></SPAN></FONT></FONT><FONT FACE="Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:14.0px'>Dreihackengasse 42, 8020 Graz<BR>
<a href="http://jovencoafricantime.mur.at">http://jovencoafricantime.mur.at</a><BR>
email: nil@mur.at<BR>
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<B>mittwoch 29. september 20.00 uhr vernissage:<BR>
</B></SPAN><FONT SIZE="5"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:24.0px'>Paula Miklosevic (Beograd) - Ideal Place<BR>
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fotoausstellung bis 31. 10. 2004. <BR>
öffnungszeiten: mo - fr 9:00 - 16:30; do - so 17:00 - 22:00 uhr<BR>
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</FONT><FONT FACE="Verdana">The <I>Ideal Place</I> is a project which deals with the Utopean construct of an idyllic state of happiness. During her residency in Graz in July 2004, Paula Miklosevic worked out a series of photographs and interviews with young african refugees between 17 and 35 years of age, who work at, or use the facilities of the artspace N I L.<BR>
This work is part of a series of interviews Miklosevic started with young people, who were born and live in different countries of Eastern Europe (Moldova, Romania, Macedonia, Ukraine, Serbia and Montenegro,...). All these countries underwent a long period of socialist government, which in most texts on Utopias (from Thomas Moore and Campanella to modern writers) has been imagined and prescribed as an ideal system. Yet, these young people live in a post-communist era, in a time of globalisation and their countries are going through major political and economic changes and the memory of the past systems is still problematic. To the Africans in Graz, Austria is the “promised land”. Are they really happy here, or are they still longing for a better place?<BR>
Since Utopia is always based on the principle of equality, where individual desires and dreams are suppressed in the name of the general good, Miklosevic approaches the problem from an opposite standpoint. Instead of constructing global theories, she stopped ordinary people in the street and asked them what their personal idea of the ideal place is. <BR>
All the people were interviewed in natural surroundings (parks, fields, woods, countryside) to avoid any direct social context. They stated their name, age, and the city and country they come from, before describing in a few sentences their imagined ideal place. The general idea of this project is to compare different projections of Utopia based on the individual experiences and personal desires of young people coming from Eastern Europe. <BR>
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</FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">Wir danken: Stadt Graz Kultur, Referat für Jugend, Familie, Frauen und Soziales der Stadt Graz, Land Steiermark Kultur, Land Steiermark Referat Jugend, BKA Kunst, mur.at, Fritz Langmann.<BR>
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