OVERTOURISM

2023

 

Since travel has become possible again on a large scale after the pandemic, tourist hotspots from Rome to Lucerne to Bali have suffered from their popularity: dirt, noise, traffic chaos, annoyed residents, selfie invasion. "Too many people" in other words: "overtourism" stands for the opposite of the trendy buzzwords "more sustainable, more mindful, more local" that tourism offices like to advertise with these days. The same goes for the slippers that the hotels offer their guests. They are anything but environmentally friendly. The white slippers are disposable products that are taken home by guests or thrown away by the hotel. Year after year, millions of slippers end up in the garbage, which may have been worn once. My performance, which I recorded in the tourist hotspot Lucerne, deals with these issues. The slippers sewn together stand for the masses of tourists who conquer the hotspot in lockstep. At the same time it is about their ecological footprint.