Barbara Krobath’s tile picture shows three tourists waving and shooting photos out of a train window: a universal feel-good motif which at first sight looks innocuous and hilarious. And yet, this is a special train: the Qinghai–Tibet or Qingzang railway is the highest railway line in the world (highest point: 5072 m). A prestige project of the Chinese government that already Mao Zedong had been dreaming of, it connects the province of Qinghai with Lhasa, the capital city of the Autonomous Region of Tibet. Is this railway line a means to keep relocating more and more Chinese to the Roof of the World so as to continually marginalize the native Tibetans and their culture? If need be, will it be used for quick transportation of troops to Lhasa? Or are we supposed to read this as a vision of a future in which Chinese tourists come to visit a free Tibet, waving to a proud independent people?

The 19-square-meter picture Drei Chinesen in der Qinghai– Tibet-Bahn (Three Chinese on the Qinghai–Tibet Railway) is composed of about 40,000 Bisazza glass mosaic pieces and was made by deaf course participants of the Equalizent Training Center (Obere Augartenstraße 20, 1020 Vienna), where it was also permanently installed on October 10, 2013.