Landung in Australien (2015)

Christoph Wachter & Mathias Jud

Ⓒ Christoph Wachter & Mathias Jud

The work is an exploration of refugee and asylum seeker policies.

We perceive ourselves to be in a shrinking world of digital communication and borderless travel. However, this is only a reality for the privileged few, those with civil rights and residence permits, while others are excluded and suppressed.

Those asylum seekers who arrived by boat suffer in pointless undetermined detention. Their trauma continues after having survived dramatic flights and life-threatening boat odysseys. Their existence is used by the Australian authorities merely as a deterrent.

The promises of this shrinking world, the shortening of distances, the opportunities for connection, appear to be crucial. Being able to transmit a sign of life in dire situations is an existential necessity, it decides whether survival is possible or whether humans are left in forced neglect. It prevents marginalised voices from getting swallowed up by the open sea or power political debates.