During the pandemic, restrictions in Vienna were particularly strict. The Viennese club scene, which I have been involved with for decades, was severely affected.

Saturday, 13 March 2021 marked exactly one year since the last time people danced and celebrated on Vienna's Gürtel nightlife mile. Since then, increasing silence and desolation have taken hold there, with some of the clubs having been closed for a year. To mark the occasion, I initiated a poster campaign to remind people of the almost forgotten ‘old normality’ and raise the question of what our ‘new normality’ in terms of live music and club culture should/can/will look like in the future. 

A total of over 1,200 posters were displayed at the entrances of ten clubs. From the perspective of that time, the physical proximity of the people in the concert and party photos of the venues seemed irritating to absurd. Our bewilderment when viewing them illustrates the ‘internal upload filter’ that we had all acquired during the pandemic. Spontaneous reactions from passers-by showed that the intervention conveyed an impression of vacancy and decay. That hit the nail on the head.