Hotel Europa

Former Austrian tourism sites — hotels and resorts that are now in decline. Once for leisure and recreation, these spaces have lost their original function and are repurposed as shelters for Ukrainian refugees and displaced people from around the world

Hotel Europa is a project that explores sites historically part of Austrian tourism infrastructure for temporary lodging, rest, or recreation. These places are now in a state of decline, both technically and morally obsolete. Once hotels and resorts, they have lost their original function and are now offered as shelters to people fleeing the war in Ukraine, refugees, and displaced people from around the world

These sites and their inhabitants coexist in a strange state where “temporary” becomes permanent. Due to financial or health limitations, many displaced people have not integrated into their new country and lead very hermetic lifestyles within hotels, often without contact with the cities in which they live. With no safe place to call home, people cannot choose their environment and must adapt to what they have, adjusting their needs accordingly. At the same time, the places themselves change, their image and appearance shaped by the presence of their inhabitants

The project’s body is a photo series of the insides of these locations — private rooms and open areas. Using a film camera, I capture this liminal reality and, more broadly, the less visible "side effects" of wars and displacement

https://sontse.space/hoteleuropa/