June 2010

If you are from a non-EU Member State and your answer to the question “Do you want to have a better life?” is in the affirmative, you could for example migrate to Austria. In that case, you would enter the country with a tourist visa and find accommodation with family or friends. Then you would embark on the stony road to obtain a resident’s registration form, health insurance and a work permit – and to win recognition by “regular” citizens. First you’d have to make do with illegal cleaning jobs or selling hamburgers or kebabs. If you have stamina and are lucky, you could climb the social hierarchy and become a janitor or a hairdresser. And if your university degree is finally acknowledged in Austria, you are finally free to embark on an academic career.

For Europoly, Dejan Kaludjerović will create a big gaming board at the Schauspielhaus venue and apply the principles of the Monopoly board game to the situation of migrants in the EU. Streets become real persons and their occupations. Indicators of integration status are no longer houses but bags – both of the plastic shopping variety and designer items. Europoly highlights the immense influence of the EU on human identity: we ourselves are tokens who experience at first hand how every aspect of our lives is determined by money and laws.

Respected artist Dejan Kaludjerović, who was born in Belgrade in 1972 and has been living in Vienna for the past six years, will create an installation that reflects his personal experience.