Vlora_1991 is a video created for the “Alien Garden”, a playful intervention in public space. In 2015, during the so-called “European migrant crisis”, more than one million refugees, mostly from Syria and Afghanistan, entered the European Union. When talking about this issue, especially populist politicians used the term “Flüchtlichgswelle” (German for refugee wave), which tried to demonize the refugees as an uncontrollable wave rolling over Europe.
In 1991, the cargo ship “Vlora” carried more than ten thousand refugees from Albania to Italy. This video uses footage from the Adriatic Sea. It critically deals with the implied relationships between the physical phenomenon of the wave and the refuge from Durrës in Albania to Bari in Italy.