ein nichtort
or the fairy tale about the galoshes of fortune
„Heimat ist Nichtort. Heimat ist Utopie. Am intensivsten wird sie erlebt, wenn man weg ist und sie einem fehlt; das eigentliche Heimatsgefuehl ist das Heimweh. Aber auch wenn man nicht weg ist, naehrt sich das Heimatgefuehl aus Fehlendem, aus dem, was nicht mehr oder auch noch nicht ist. Denn die Erinnerungen und Sehnsuechte machen die Orte zur Heimat.“
(p. 32, Schlink in Heimat als Utopie)
„Home is a Non place. Home is an utopia. You can experience in the most intense way, if you are away and you miss it; the actual home feeling is the homesickness. And even if you are not away, the home feeling nourish itself out of the missing, out of that, which does not anymore or not just yet exist. Because the memory and the longing are turning places into homes.“
(p. 32, Schlink in Heimat als Utopie)
Transcarpathia is a region in the west of Ukraine, which is surrounded by the natural border of the Carpathian mountains and artificial borders of the countries Hungary, Slovakia and Rumania. Within the 20th century it used to belong to 7 different countries: till 1918 it belonged to Hungary, then for 20 years to Czech Slovakia, for two weeks it became an autonomous country, then, till 1944, it belonged to Hungary, then to Soviet Union and since 1991 to new founded Ukraine. Nowadays the area is quite dismissed by the Ukraine government. The area statistically has about 80 till 90 percent unemployment and the most people have their own land and animals in order to get their food. Nowadays a lot of different nationalities and religions are settled in this region, and dependent on the proportion of nationality and religion the language and time is set to Ukrainian or Hungarian, which is one hour behind, time.
A situation which a lot of different countries are facing. Above all east European Countries, like Rumania, Hungary, Slovakia or Slovenia are dealing with this problem. These countries, which were part of a the big Habsburger kingdom, were split up and since then it seems more than a game then ruling countries: Borders were changed and countries were founded according to their geographical location and political interests rather than according to their history, language or culture. Thereby there has been no consideration for the society and culture of the people, who have to deal with the outcome.
I was travelling in Transcarpathia. I was visiting different places in order to find the inhabitants' identity, their ideas and their wishes. Talking to people from different national and religious background I tried to find answers on my search for identity.
Result is a very personal interpretation of an area and its peoples' identity who are confronted with a lack of national and individual belonging. The presented pictures are an attempt to try to communicate my interpretation of their identity.
People, who have a lack on national identity either as a historical impeded tradition or as a contemporary resource (because of the lack of presence of the state in everyday situation) and also are limited within personal and professional development draw themselves back in the personal surrounding: the home and the family.
But at the end its just an interpretation, an interpretation of an issue I never can get even close. Trying to understand peoples' identity, which consists mostly of irrational and undefinable feelings, the interpretation feels just like scratching on the surface, my surface.