Diaspora

Diaspora is an inter-media work set up in an airport building. The artists use the format of video, audio and graphic announcements presented on flight information video displays, through public address systems and on graphic displays. The short messages suggest the state of the local community in the wider economic or political sense. This work is part of a series of inter-media projects about migrations that the authors have been working on since 2002.

Diaspora / dispersion, dia-spore,
prefix: through, across       root: spore – meaning seed, semen or reproductive cell
The term diaspora is explained as planting, insemination, embryo.

“The term diaspora refers to any group of people sharing a common ethnic identity who were either forced to leave or voluntarily left their settled territory, and became residents in areas often far removed from their homeland. Diaspora is the opposite of nomadic lifestyle. Diaspora’s cultural development often assumes a different course compared to the population in the original place of settlement and tends to vary between remotely separated communities in culture, traditions and other factors.”

The video clips were made in Berlin, Sarajevo, Hong Kong and the Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport. The audio spots are excerpts of the general terms connected to diaspora. The opinions of a member of the local community and a state institution are also used.