wir_hier is a media project that involves long-term detainees at a state prison in vienna, austria. the project team comprises beate goebel (artistic direction), laurent ziegler (photography/video), michael zagorski and markus raffelsberger (graphic design/animation), helmut prochart (webdesign/photography), maria pointner (costumes) and yvonne czermak (assistance).

wir_hier organizes acting workshops inside the prison and stages small theatre plays. it also produces audio plays, a dvd with performance work and it distributes a selection of art work printed on t-shirts and consumer bags. regular exhibitions since 2005 (photography/mixed media) and public lectures on any given situation seek to inform the public on the situation of inmates from different angles and perspectives and raise public awareness about prisons and social issues related to rehabilitation of prisoners.

the most recent theatre work was presented on march 8, 2007 at kosmos theater in vienna, austria. the play "wie man wird was man ist", written by lina loos around 1900, deals with social norms and restrictions woman had to deal with at the fin de siecle. five female inmates rehearsed with professional actors inside the prison and contributed to the performance with a recorded voice over. the play was performed solely for the prison inmates prior to the premiere at kosmos theatre. an animated clip based on stills and original audio footage complemented the play and can be viewed here.

wie man wird was man ist (requires flash player)

directed by beate goebel
actors barbara, christine, ingrid-ruth, samantha
still photography laurent ziegler, helmut prochart
post production, special effects laurent ziegler
assistance yvonne czermak
sound eva koeniger

in summer 2007 the first working circle with male inmates commenced on rap as a venue to express stories on their individual life. what began as an experiment with the aim to produce text related work turned out to be a major undertaking. furious steez joined the project with his professional input as a vienna based rapper. r.i.p. rappers in prison was given birth and in total four songs were recorded in september 2007 at das kw korak & weninger studios. various media sources (the austrian public service broadcaster orf, der standard, augustin, fm4 radio network) featured the project, hoanzl records agreed to produce and distribute the work of rappers in prison with a limited edition of 500 vinyl records. click here to view the latest video clip of r.i.p.

ich habe lust (requires flash player)

directed by beate goebel, laurent ziegler
music rappers in prison, furious steez
still photography laurent ziegler
post production, special effects laurent ziegler, valence

ich habe lust is one of three video clips with the aim to display the personal experience and notion of male prisoners towards the theme of seduction. all three clips became part of the vienna based opera production the rake's progress by tom rakewell. rake's progress reflects on temptation as well as self-determination and provided an ideal frame to present this work. the project was carried out in close collaboration with theater an der wien and the association musik zum anfassen by dietmar flosdorf. the premiere took place november 14, 2008 at the theater an der wien.

wir_hier received the sozialmarie award 2007 to honour innovative and creative social projects and went 4th place at the annual 'innovationspreis der freien kulturszene wien'. our work is supported by the vienna city council and the austrian federal chancellary. a larger selection of photo work is available here.

more detailed information at http://www.wirhier.at