- Two record players on the border table
Grenztisch (border table) is symbolic example of the border between two neighbour countries. It is located in the middle of famous South-Styrian “Weinstraße”
(wein terrace) at Glanz an der Weinstraße/Kungota and it is the place of pure joy and hedonism, very popular during warm days.
The table is built exactly on the border so one half of the table is in Austria and the other half is in Slovenia – means, sitting at the same table does not necessarily mean that person sit in the same country. “Transborder socialisation”?
Left turntable: Austria, right turntable: Slovenia
The table clearly defines it through it’s three missions:
– Treffpunkt/zbirališče/meeting point,
– Austausch/izmenjava/exchange,
– Nachbarschaft/sosedstvo/neighborhood.
Austria and Slovenia have long and partly turbulent history (some ghosts still wake up from time to time) but cultural, ethical and geographical similarities (Alps) are inevitable. Grenztisch celebrates those similarities and establishes new harmonies.
In Grenzstück Nr. 2 two record players are placed on each side of the table – one in Austria, another one in Slovenia. Both records players simultaneously play one schlager song: one Austrian and one Slovenian. Schlager is one of the most common cultural similarities between two nations; unlike their languages which are fundamentally different, although they lexicon often matches. Grenzstück Nr. 2 shows language dissonances that create new harmony of understanding…
Photos by Nikolaos Zachariadis