8/29/96 OPENING AND BON VOYAGE BUFFET - 6 pm Graz Hauptbahnhof
8/30/96 PRESENTATION AND CHAMPAGNE BREAKFAST - 9 am 10:07am Vienna Westbahnhof
8/30/96 PRESENTATION - 1:18pm - 4:14pm Budapest Train Station
9/1/96 ARRIVAL & TRANSFER OF BOXES TO WBB ST. PETERSBURG

W/BB Austria: On the Train to St. Petersburg WBB Austria was organized by Kunstverein W.A.S. (Women«s Art Support): Gina Ballinger (curator), Veronika Dreier, Doris Jauk-Hinz and Eva Ursprung (artists on the train), Ingeborg Pock and Renate Rosalia (artists).

 

BOXES ON THE TRAIN

Our WBB exhibition crossing eight borders was quite an experience! We went through the entire train from time to time, inviting people to come to our rented car to view the "Boxes On the Train" exhibition.

Some passengers stayed with us for hours into the night discussing the project. Everybody told us that this trip would be impossible. I like to do impossible things.

Eva Ursprung - WBB artist/curator

In August 1996, the WBB exhibition was due in Graz, Austria. With St. Petersburg, Russia next on the schedule, Doris Jauk-Hinz, Veronica Dreier, Gina Ballinger and Eva Ursprung conceived of an original idea. They installed the boxes in a rented train car, creating a moveable sculpture in a newly defined open space moving from Graz, Austria past Vienna, Budapest and Lvov, Ukraine and on to St. Petersburg. Passengers viewed the exhibition en route with presentations and receptions held in train stations along the way.

The WBB installation was presented in a nostalgic sleeper compartment, bedecked with golden draperies, a silver tea service, three woman artists, a writer, a photographer, two EDP experts, two Russian sleeper attendants, a laptop with an Internet connection, a video camera and 187 boxes from women artists around the world. The exhibition crossed eight borders on the way to St. Petersburg, including those of Austria, Hungary, the Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Letvia, Estonia and Russia.

This sculptural installation, which took its form from the transport process itself, was open to all passengers on the train. Passersby became guests and tours were conducted throughout the WBB wagon. Both the purpose and the itinerary of the trip were published and recorded. Aside from press conferences, publication of the event limited to the Internet. The wagon served as an 'analogous' gallery and a mobile interface between its journey in real space and its virtual correspondence to a "digital gallery."

An on-line event was planned between those on the train and the artists left behind in Austria and in USA for the exhibition's arrival in St. Petersburg.

Traveling Fever

Before we set out, we heard again and again that traveling through all these countries with 187 artworks and arriving in St. Petersburg unscathed was nearly impossible. We were told also that no general customs forms and no consistent laws existed between the new countries and that we would probably be attacked and robbed by organized bands of thugs and thieves. Just an hour before our departure time we received a call from the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs who suggested we postpone the trip indefinitely. Then the Austrian Cultural AttachŽ in Budapest tried to stop us from setting out, saying it was all far too dangerous.

Between Here and Nowhere

The idea of a border-crossing exhibition with the sole purpose of establishing a world-wide communications network for women artists to overcome separation and find a common ground to build upon free of nationalism seemed more and more absurd the further we traveled away from our "Western civilization". In Hungary the customs officials let us passÑthough not without considerable interestÑbut at the border of the Ukraine the project ground to a halt amid a whirlwind of misunderstanding. Everything became different here. Even the width of the train track changed: huge cranes heaved the wagon two meters up in the air onto a new substructure conforming to the Russian norm.

The further east our journey took us, the more adventurous it became. In an increasingly foreign world the values and attitudes changed with each passing kilometer and our undertaking seemed more and more questionable. The concept of woman, art, and nation, changed here at breakneck speed. An irate question came from a journalist in Lvov: "Why aren't there national flags by the artists' names?"

The tone of the customs officials changed dramatically here as well. Once, in the middle of nowhere, the heavy pounding of a fist on the compartment door and the sounds of military boots and harsh voices erupted in the black of night. "Control!" the voices cried. "No Camera!" After checking our passports and completing an inspection of the boxes, the officials stood in the car looking wide-eyed and totally lost. Our sleeper carriage escorts, not entirely clear themselves on our objective, tried to explain as best they could. With a great shaking of heads, the officials avidly studied our three-language (German, Hungarian and Russian) brochure. More officials were called, and later on a parade of friends and relatives, wives and children filed through the exhibition far into the night.

Our letter of recommendation from the Austrian Consulate in Moscow (written in Russian) was thoroughly examined, drawing a few smiles and timid friendliness. A sort of fatalistic relaxation replaced our initial fear. These villages were not even marked on the map and we were surrounded by foreigners as far as the eye could see. Just what exactly were they supposed to do with us? Clearly, they considered us somewhat crazy but harmless nonetheless. The one stark certainty was that officials did not want us to stay in their country under any circumstances. Every one of us, travelers and officials alike, heaved a collective sigh of relief when the officials determined they could find some reason to help us continue on our journey. Even this, however, did not proceed smoothly. It seemed our customs document, the one that allowed us to take the boxes out of Austria, had disappeared following a customs check. Later, when we arrived in Russia we were informed our visa was incomplete; missing was the portion that allowed us to leave the country again. It probably had been retained by officials upon our departure from Belarus.

Women Out of Control

We finally arrived in St. Petersburg after a 64-hour, 40 minute trip, including a 12-hour delay. The WBB Internet-Exchange between Graz and Santa Barbara had taken place without us, 12 hours before we arrived, in fact, and the invited journalists were long since tucked in their beds. The porters wanted to $30 to move the boxes 100 meters, and Polina Fedorova, the curator responsible for the WBB exhibition in St. Petersburg, had no idea where to store them.

We spent the entire next day in the Austrian Consulate and the Russian Ministry. We were in the country illegally when we werenÕt supposed to be there at all. After a long series of arguments and rebuttals, we received a new visa and a resting place was found for the boxes. When Polina finished reading our letter of recommendation, she turned to us with a laugh: The Russian language has no term for borders other than district control. Given this translation, Women Beyond Borders meant "Women out of Control'.

Barbara Putz-Plecko, No Way! Burn it!	Eva Ursprung, Pitstop
Reception in train station along the way	Gina Ballinger, WBB/Austria Artist/ Coordinator on left (Boxes on the Train)

Eva Ursprung, WBB Austria Curator and Artist; Doris Jauk-Hinz, WBB Artist and Coordinator; Veronica Drier, WBB Coordinator speaking to reporter in Lvov, Ukraine