An investigation of notions of belonging and representation of identity in the Serbian diaspora community told through the stories of people who felt compelled to recreate a piece of Paris in their backyard.
Serbia is the home to several Eiffel towers. Ajfelice is a documentary video art project geographically based in the Balkans that aims to playfully and creatively challenge preconceptions about cultural identity and belonging among migrant communities. Specifically, it is concerned with the phenomenon of “gastarbeiters” (migrant workers) who have spent a significant portion of their lives in France and decide to pay homage to their former home when returning to Serbia by building a miniature Eiffel Tower in their back gardens.
The phenomenon of “Gastarbeiters” (German for long-term immigrant “guest workers”) has formed the basis of a unique sub-community in Eastern Europe, which has its own values, lifestyle aspirations and, above all, aesthetics. Perhaps the most palpable expression of this comes in the architecture of the many gastarbeiter villages found in Serbia and elsewhere in the former Yugoslav region, with grandiose, ostentatious homes that remain empty most of the year and are only inhabited during the brief season in which the diaspora returns home from every corner of Europe and comes together.
Short film, in development.
