Using a script based on texts by Herbert Marcuse, Joseph Beuys, Henri Bergson and others, this “laughter performance” was performed by Christiane Beinl, Xenia Gala, Akram al Halabi, Nancy Mensah-Offei, Johanna Orsini-Rosenberg addressing the audience gathered by the path in Sigmund-Freud-Park next to Votiv Church in Vienna. Hidden among this audience were members of the refugee choir Hor 29.Novembar, who at a given signal (bird noise), would laugh sarcastically.
Choreographed by composer Tamara Friebel, the performers moved up and down in a procession and interacted with two metal bed frames that functioned as a moveable prop, wheeled in front of the Votiv Church, where seventy asylum seekers had sought refuge in 2012 as a protest against conditions in their refugee camp in Traiskirchen.

THE LAUGHTER THAT GETS CAUGHT IN YOUR THROAT revived this moment of protest, reminding us of the draconian policy of Austria’s Minister of Interior Affairs, Johanna Mikl-Leitner, who sent many asylum
seekers back to their home countries, including Syrians displaced by war.

Political demonstrations usually happen in response to an issue in the present. But that issue often gets buried by other events, which collectively compete for media coverage. THE LAUGHTER THAT GETS CAUGHT IN YOUR THROAT reminds us that the consequences of present-day issues continue to play out after their media coverage stops. As a kind of “commemorative” protest, this intervention renews the political narratives that shaped the event, giving it new life by staging something that feels ontologically fresh, blurring the boundary between art and life, performer and audience, and audience and lingering passersby unsure of what they were witnessing but laughing along with the “laughing choir” anyway. Laughter can be genuine, and laughter can be mirthless, a nervous response to things we don’t understand. (Sean Ashton)

"Die Wirklichkeit ist anders. Die geheimen Codes der Heimaten sind nicht aus bewussten Regeln, sondern größtenteils aus unbewussten Gewohnheiten gesponnen. Um in eine Heimat einwandern zu können, muss der Heimatlose zuerst die Geheimcodes bewusst erlernen und dann wieder vergessen. Bei der Einwanderung entsteht zwischen den schönen Beheimateten und den hässlichen Heimatlosen ein polemischer Dialog." (Vilém Flusser, Von der Freiheit des Migranten, 1994).

Script for The Laughter That Gets Caught in Your Throat by Barbara Holub.
The script includes quotes from the following texts: Vilém Flusser, Von der Freiheit des Migranten, 1994; Interview with Johanna Mikl-Leitner, ZIB 2 (News on Austrian Television/ ORF), 20.4.2015; Herbert Marcuse, Repressive Toleranz, 1966. Das Lachen und das Komische, Zeitschrift für Literatur- und Theatersoziologie (magazine for Literature and Theater Sociology), March 2012; Henri Bergson, Das Lachen, 1900; Joseph Beuys, Aufruf zur Alternative, 1978.

The video is currently presented in the show "Art of Activism", GHMP/ Prague City Gallery (until March 8, 2026).