“The Waiting Room”, Lehner Gallery, Parallel Vienna, 2023

Photos by Nadezhda Dorofeeva

“The Waiting Room” is an installation inspired by Ostrovskaya’s work as a volunteer coordinator and interpreter at Vienna’s Central Station in the spring of 2022. For months she was witnessing the waiting rooms filled with exhaustion and hope. These spaces became a temporary world of their own, shaping her reflections on displacement and the state of waiting. The installation recreates this atmosphere through rows of old chairs, armchairs, and couches, each holding overpainted portraits and postcards. The figures appear anonymous and masked, united by shared uncertainty. Ambient recordings from the station envelop the space, where time seems paused. The work questions what it means to wait—for a train, for a better future, for the end of the world or just for peace—and whether we all are only passing through.