This work of art was imagined by the German team and installed by the Finnish team.

It is located in Loimaa, Finland, on the market square.

The German pupils wanted to display an artwork which questionned the language and the impact its inscription in space can have on people.

It was therefore important that i twas displayed in a space that would be seen by people from different origins and backgrounds. Besides, the work of art also brought life to the city.

The project was temporary, two windows were covered with black material and several words and sentences were written in different languages, using glowing paint.

It was important that none of the words were translated, since the actual meaning of the words is unimportant. The point of this project is to have people look at language and learn how to stop irrationally fearing foreign cultures through it.

The idea was to start with a blackened-out window. The following window shows the message “Don’t judge a book by its cover”, or rather an equivalent Finnish idiom.

Moving on, the first foreign word is “betrayal” which is written in Welsh , without giving a direct translation, which is what the german team wanted.

Underneath the Welsh word, the sentence “Something seemingly FAMILIAR can be BACKSTABBING”, translated into Finnish, explains the feeling that arises when seeing the known alphabet used in a foreign language.

The next language is Japanese with the word “friendship”. Here, the explaining sentence is “Something that seems UNFAMILIAR can actually be CLOSE to you.”, once again translated into Finnish. The sentence thus shows that an unknown alphabet can relay known concepts.

The last word is “love” written in Arabic, followed by the sentence “Even though something looks THREATENING, it does not mean it’s HEARTLESS.” With this the German team wanted to disprove the misconception that anything written in Arabic is extremist and dangerous.