At the 2022 Wiener Festwochen, according to the Wiener Zeitung, Anna Rispoli landed a hit: ‘In Close Encounters, the audience found itself deeply involved in a dialogue with young people. Messages from the everyday lives of young people.’ In 2023, the reopened parliament building, a place of representation par excellence, will host the Nestroy-nominated project, which creates proximity between groups of people that only occasionally overlap in everyday life. A collaborative text based on conversations with Viennese apprentices and students aged 15 to 19 was compiled around themes such as future prospects, fears and desires, individualism and community seen from the point of view of young people. The audience is invited to reiterate this dialogue in 1:1 encounters with the young participants. ‘Sometimes you have to become someone else to understand who you really are. That’s the close encounter,’ says the artist and activist about her piece.