Stadtluft

Modernism brought fundamental changes in the way we conceptualize the urban space, which resulted in the pigeons being perceived as nuisances or pests. Through an investigation of the pigeon-related bureaucracy of the city of Vienna, the project, Stadtluft focuses on the political, scientific and technical apparatuses in which the modernist spatio-visual logic imposed on pigeons is being implemented, and highlights their similarities to the means of oppression of social groups. At the same time, by turning a spotlight on the metaphor of "rats with wings", the work connects its subject with the rhetorical framing of human groups on a broader political horizon and raises awareness of stigmatization through animalization.