On September 25, 2015, the fourth “Long Day of Flight” taking place under the patronage of the United Nations Refugee Agency, two flags with emergency exit signs were raised on Vienna’s Maria-Theresien-Platz at 10 a.m. The installation could be seen there for two weeks.

The meaning of escape route signs as well as that of flags is determined by conventions. Flags represent countries, administrative units, and organizations; escape route signs provide guidance in cases of emergency. When brought together, their meaning starts to “flutter.” It is not defined to whom a way out is shown nor who is showing it or to where it leads. Emergency exits must be “flagged” unequivocally. Any vagueness can have fatal consequences. The indication of an emergency exit that depends on the wind and is hence anywhere and nowhere reduced this principle to absurdity. At the same time, a fluttering emergency exit flag hardly marked any territory.

Being presented on the “Long Day of Flight” and with respect to the current debates surrounding issues of refugees, asylum (politics), and migration, the work was per se rooted within a distinct political context. Yet there were other ways to look at the work as well. The flags could also be understood as a metaphor for how quickly wind, fate, and routes may change. Not least, they were also a semiotic game, an irritation in public space, and an interrogation of emblems and demarcation.