Die Unscheinbaren

LUZERNER THEATER I FRANZ VON STROLCHEN

2018 - 2019

As a commissioned work for a new performance entitled DIE UNSCHEINBAREN, which premiered at the Lucerne Theater in April 2019, photographer Mischa Christen made portraits of white vans and their drivers in Lucerne and the surrounding area between September 2018 and April 2019. Together with short interviews with the people portrayed, which were also incorporated into the performance in fictionalized form alongside the photos, the aim was to depict as broad a spectrum of people and stories as possible.

Mischa Christen's photographs portray the white van as a mystery in our society. The white van can be anything here, but above all it is a projection screen for our fears and dreams. Afflicted with prejudices and stereotypes about the respective drivers, ranging from the child abductor to the petty criminal caricatured by Hollywood to the well-known image of the terrorist from the Middle East, the white van is a permanent fixture on our streets. It is precisely its white and inconspicuous shell that sparks our imagination about the drivers and the cargo - although the truth is usually much more banal than our imagination.

Christen's photographs draw the viewer's attention to the white van standing in different environments - once together with the drivers and once as individual objects of disturbance in urban and rural areas. The interpretation of the photos is therefore up to the viewer.

All the drivers were encountered by chance in the Lucerne agglomeration and photographed on the spot within a short time.

Remarks by Austrian theater director Franz von Strolchen