We Are Part of Everything
A participatory art project about migration, identity and belonging
37 people. 18 countries. 37 stories. One shared space.
BELONGING – We Are Part of Everything is a participatory art project by SofĂa Andretta Juárez, Sonia Siblik, and Marco Grajeda that explores migration, identity, memory, and the human need for belonging. In individually designed photographic portraits, people of different ages, generations, and cultural backgrounds make their personal stories visible. Some have migrated themselves, others were born or raised in Austria. Some left their countries of origin in search of love, new opportunities, or a better life; others were forced to do so by political, social, economic, or personal circumstances. Their experiences are diverse—yet in this project, they meet in a shared artistic space.
The project combines artistic expression with personal experiences and collective data. In an accompanying questionnaire, participants explored language, acceptance, discrimination, support, identity, and belonging. The anonymized analysis reveals both shared experiences and differences. The portraits give a face to the numbers—and each face its own story. BELONGING does not ask anyone to choose between cultures, languages, or identities. Rather, the project understands identity as something multifaceted and fluid—shaped by the places, relationships, memories, and experiences we carry within us.
Therefore, the focus is not on the question "Where are you from?", but rather:
Who are you?
What do you carry within you?
What has shaped you?
Where do you feel you belong?
And what kind of society do we want to create together?
We don't have to be the same to belong together.
We need to learn to see each other.
Because we do not live outside of each other's stories.
We have long been a part of it.
WE ARE PART OF EVERYTHING.
Part of a whole
We move the world
3 artists – one dream
We are all part of a larger whole. Like gears in a machine, our lives interlock – every encounter, every decision, and every action sets something in motion. At the heart of the work lies the human heart. From it, threads extend across borders and continents, connecting people, stories, and life paths. The world map and compass speak of origin, orientation, and the search for one's place. The gears represent the systems that shape us and that we simultaneously help to create. Belonging does not mean being the same. It means being connected – and recognizing that every person has their place within the whole.
Collaborative artistic process
The work was created as part of the BELONGING – We Are Part of Everything project and was conceived and realized jointly by SofĂa Andretta Juárez, Sonia Siblik and Marco Grajeda.
From the outset, the work was developed as an equal artistic process. All three artists had a voice, contributed their own ideas, perspectives, and experiences, and were able to integrate their respective artistic techniques and forms of expression into the collaborative work. Decisions regarding composition, materials, symbols, and design were made through dialogue.
Thus, the work bears the signature of all three artists, without any single position taking center stage. Different techniques and perspectives combine to form a unified whole – and in doing so, they already reveal in the creative process what BELONGING is all about: participation, encounter, mutual recognition, and the experience that diversity does not divide, but can give rise to something new.