Untitled

Waiting in the unknown.

      
The installation in the railway station building was created after Hans Ostapenko received shocking news from his mother: his younger brother Konstantin, who was wounded at the front in Ukraine, has been reported missing and all contact with him has been broken off. Konstantin was drafted into the Ukrainian army in 2023 and served as a marine on the Dnipro River in the Kherson region from the beginning of 2024. 
  
At the beginning of his residency at Bad Aussee railway station, Hans and Konstantin were still in regular contact. Hans still told his brother about the beautiful surroundings of the Capital of Culture, where he was preparing for his new project. 

In order to distract himself from the events of the war, Konstantin only told the most important things about his everyday life but always wanted to find out more about how Hans was doing and what he was doing. The two brothers exchanged video messages and reminisced about their childhood. 

  
Shortly after Hans Ostapenko began to set up his station room, he received the news that his brother was missing.

Since that moment, waiting in the railway station has had a profoundly different meaning for him 

  
Day after day, Hans Ostapenko created this space as an emotional retreat, an expression of the emotional chaos and uncertainty surrounding his brother’s disappearance.