Virna Koutla

23 kilos is an ongoing project attempting to interrogate the contemporary condition of economic immigration from the South of Europe and widen the understanding around the anxieties of the so- called “lost generation” . The term "lost generation”, coined by Gertrude Stein, originally referred to people in their thirties during or shortly after the First World War. The term is now being repeatedly re-appropriated by the media, political and other groups to describe a generation hit by economic crisis as one that lacks purpose or drive. This project aims to explore the idea of immigration through the personal space of a suitcase and the limitation of the 23 kilos that one is allowed to carry with them to the new life. The -almost banal- story of one leaving their home country becomes in this piece the case study upon which the problematic of “what life fits into 23 kilos” unravels. The suitcase stands here as a practical measure and life is being celebrated through the ritualised process of packing.