Forwards Brigittenau

2011

Series of 18 photographs

An artificial turf football field in a Viennese suburb, on a spring Sunday, 7:58am, 32 minutes before the kick-off of the Under-23 championship match of the Viennese 1st Class B League. The stadium is densely surrounded by a council housing estate, which is in most cases inhabited by socially disadvantaged people. The advertisement at the stadium says: ‘I want to live here’.

All players of the team ‘Forwards Brigittenau’ have been portrayed in front of the empty stadium-side tableau denoting – ‘home’ and ‘guests’. Currently 12 of the 16 home team players have immigrant backgrounds. On the football field they are the home team, but off the field they are likely to be the guests forever – guests in their new adopted homeland.