European Border Watch Organisation
Participative, audiovisual installation
The European Border Watch Organisation (EUBW) was founded on the basis of a Texan model and has established its first recruitment centre in the Berlin border watchtower and in the web. In 2015 a registration center opened in the German city Osnabrück. EU citizens could register there as web patrols, in order to take an active part in the extensive monitoring of EU external borders via the Internet against 'illegal immigration'.
2007 - 2017- Office, Osnabrück
- European Media Art Festival
- EMAF Dialogue Prize
The publicity for the installation became part of the artistic work and was fully integrated into the project. Using a website as well as electronic and written invitations, EU citizens were invited to actively monitor the European external borders. Responses were collected by reply mail and the feedback form on the website and were pasted into the comment book that was made available in the tower. For on-site visitors there was a special guided tour, with a welcome at the entrance on behalf of the European Border Watch and a green informational handout with a web patrol registration form on the back.
The art project provoked a lot of irritation in public, even in the press media, and in the blogosphere. In 2015 the project was awarded with the Dialogue-Award of the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Germany). In 2017 a Danish version was performed in Horsens.
