The art installation Permanent Waiting Room is an artistic conceptualisation of a research process developed during a period of twenty months. It artistically disseminates theoretical statements of the project and contributes to the creative popularisation and widening its basic idea among a wider public. Being built of a ready-made cargo container, the special ambience of the installation Permanent Waiting Room visually symbolises the globalisation trend of the neoliberal postfordist society of vulgar capitalism, where the borders are open for capital and goods but at the same time strictly closed for people. It also symbolises the permanent waiting of migrants (for status, at border crossings, for a better life in general ...). At the same time, it is a venue for the presentation of multimedia materials gathered and shared by all of the project's partners from the four countries of Italy, Slovenia, Austria, and the UK.

The selected collection of films, videos, photographs, prints, recorded interviews, written materials and performances from these four countries deal with the migrant issue in documentary, exclusively artistic or/and theoretical ways. In many cases the artists involved are migrants themselves; an intimate and personal aspect thus dominates in some of the works. The curatorial process was coordinated by the Institute of Art Production and Research KITCH Ljubljana in cooperation with Cooperativa Sociale Idee in Movimento from Italy, Soho in Ottakring from Austria and The Rural Media Company from the UK.

Cargo containers at an unknown terminal

As regards the nature of the compilation of the artworks and texs of more than 25 involved artists and theoreticians, they certainly reflect the social background of their origin. The material from Italy is strongly characterised by an activist spirit that in most cases documents the long-lasting fights for closing detention centres in Italy, warning on the suffering and dying of thousands of so-called "illegal migrants" at the borders of Europe. The selection from Austria offers a mixture of artistic and activist approach introducing a number of artists who deal with the migrant phenomenon, often with a strong emotional note as many of them have migrant backgrounds themselves. The material from Slovenia deals with themes of asylum politics and the situation of foreigners, as well as with the rather unique issue of the "Erased" people of Slovenia and an analysis of the experiences of migrant women. "Migrant stories" from the UK have taken a very intimate approach to the issue of local cultural integration of migrant people.