Der Unbekannte Einwanderer, at its core, does not document a city but reorganises how it is perceived, forcing us to rediscover what we don’t see anymore. A sequence of walking feet projects across the floor, travelling the city, moving over asphalt, concrete, tiles. On the wall, photographic fragments appear and disappear without warning: graffiti, textures, unnoticed objects, surfaces that normally sit at the edge of attention.

No sequence repeats. It is not a video loop, it is rendered in real time. The experience that each visitor encounters is unique to them. The city is not shown as a rigid element but as a fluctuating field of fragments.

Buildings, streets and squares appear permanent. But their identity is constructed from countless minor elements that cultural background, mood, memory, and expectation filter differently for each person. What one notices in an instant passes unobserved by another standing in the same place.

The installation creates a space where the everyday becomes temporarily unfamiliar. The viewer’s perception negotiates, between movement and fragment, between recognition and surprise.

Each exhibition of the work was produced specifically for its location. Images were taken during a walk in the surrounding neighbourhoods of the venue, making the installation recognisable to local audiences, yet strange enough to defamiliarise what daily routine had made invisible.