Holidays / Urlaub

DV PAL 3min, © Harald Hund 2000

Urlaub (Holidays) dates back to the year 2000, when the far-right FPO party managed to enter into a coalition go-

vernment with the Conservatives in Austria. The FPO’s election campaign was marked by a racist and xenophobic

discourseand a particular hostility against Eastern European countries who wished to join the EU.

The skeleton in the film is a symbol for nationalism, a dead concept in the eyes of the author. The UFOs emanating

froma Bulgarian monument (for Soviet cosmonauts) stand for Eastern European immigrants invading Austria.

In the video the negative stereotyping of aliens (always bad, ugly, destructive and illegally intruding) is ironically

confirmed. The destruction of heritage buildings stands for the exaggerated fears of the nationalist that ‚evil‘ immi-

grants will invariablyundermine a country’s culture, ultimately changing it for the worse.