what is your place of protection?

The previous century can still be comprehended as the period of “transcendental homelessness” Georg Lukács described in 1918. Even today, the proverbial ‘search for security’ has, in addition to its literal meaning, a relatively large number of troubling connotations aimed at the sensibilities of the homeless earthlings we ourselves have become. Whether it lies in the vulnerability generated by our mobile lifestyles, or in the repercussions of globalisation that make our wish for ‘a home we can call our own’ seem purely nostalgic: in each case the experience of feeling safe, protected and at home seems to be fading into oblivion. Has anyone recently raised the question? Mia Florentine Weis has spent the past 10 years of her life on a journey. During her travels she asked everyone she encountered one simple yet confounding question: “What is your place of protection?” The question forbids us the typical differentiations (such as “where do you live?” or “where do you feel at home?” or “do you feel safe?”), thus forcing us to first reflect upon the manifold dimensions of ‘protection’ we seldom think about. For if there is a place where we feel protected and secure, what does such protection ultimately mean? Protection from whom? And for what? To many, it seems the world is still full of peril. But a place free from violence does not appear to adequately answer the question. Mia Florentine Weiss has culled together the results of her inquiry in a multimedia installation entitled What Is Your Place Of Protection?. Each of the installation’s 54 digital clips is based upon a poetry performance by the artist and offers its own answer to this question. The installation invites the viewer to experience how often this question has animated people to spontaneously express deeply personal, even metaphysical statements that extend well beyond the notion of mere physical inviolability. Again and again those questioned seem at first to be struck with wonder by what they are being asked. But, as Plato already noted: Wonder is where all philosophy begins.

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