What do you know about your mother’s childhood? What about your father’s childhood?

Generation Beta is a collection of perspectives, consisting of photographs & audios.

A glance into the future within a detour through the past. The vision is an ongoing archive, in which people age seven to ninety-seven tell the life stories of their ancestors.  Daughters talk about their mothers, sons about their fathers — collective memories. The conversations lead to the creation of a photographic portrait, addressing transmitted body language, inherited gestures and visible memories. The starting point is Vienna, a city between East and West and a city of many cultures; a place where significantly diverse perspectives of history collide. Generation Beta refers to the generation that is about to be born. Individual destinies are embedded in a context of complex world history. The project aims to give answers to the big questions: How do we break the transgenerational cycle of passing on behavior? Where are the gaps, that give us space to act freely, in order to overcome transgenerational trauma? The reproduction of suffering is easy — but how do we find a positive, empowering attitude towards our (immaterial) inheritance? How do forwarded memories change throughout time? How do we want to live in the future and which decisions do we make consciously?
 How does history echo within us and how do we lay a foundation for exchange and connection? All of us are born with passed-on baggage, formed by the lived experiences of our ancestors — how can we reflect on these words, gestures, traditions and lifestyles?  And ultimately: what do we want to pass on to the upcoming generation, “Beta”?

Idea & realization: Franzi Kreis

Finding Motherland and Father Earth in Vienna are powered by SHIFT

Dramatic advice: Lukas Beck, Finding Motherland Research & Outreach:  Jana Kriechbaum, Father Earth Assistance Interviews & Sound: Stephan Krug, Assistance Interviews & Editorial Office Moscow: Kseniia Degtyareva, Translations Russian:  Prof. Mag. Nieves Cavic-Podgornik, Marina Kharitonova, Translations English: Emilie Drexler-Wagner, Esther Pruckner, Editorial Office English: Elisabeth Pozzi-Thanner, Translations Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian:  Doc. dr. Irma Duraković, Public Relations:  Lena Fuchs, Photo-documentation exhibitions: Karin Gruber, Alexandra Grill

Thanks to all protagonists who opened up their family-boxes for this reckless project and me.