University of Graz (Graz School for Interdisciplinary Transnational Studies)
Carolyn Defrin in collaboration with NOMIS Research Project Elastic Borders
Portals to the Future

A person standing before a series of pink doors of varying sizes on sandy ground with a transparent train station background showing a train.

Carolyn Defrin and Joey Galanos, Doors to the Future in Samos and Graz (2026), digital collage and watercolor, courtesy of the artists

Portals to the Future is a citywide artistic intervention and exhibition exploring how we might imagine more humane futures for migration. Developed by artist-researcher Carolyn Defrin, the project brings together two interconnected works created in dialogue with people living and working across contemporary borders.

Throughout Graz, subtle interventions transform everyday doorways into portals to immersive audio experiences. Originally developed in Samos, Greece, these sound works invite visitors to pause, listen, and step into speculative futures shaped by care, connection, repair, and coexistence.

The journey culminates in an exhibition of thirty-two artworks created with participants from Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Together, the works explore how imagination itself can become a civic practice.

The program also includes a public walking tour and a conversation with members of the NOMIS research project Elastic Borders: Rethinking the Borders of the 21st Century, which is led by Bilgin Ayata at the University of Graz and reflects on this interdisciplinary collaboration.

A cooperation in the context of steirischer herbst ’26