Granica
sound — image — performance
The main project locations — Poznan and Mariupol — are cities that are maximally distant from each other in Poland and Ukraine. They are also located in the vicinity of the borders with other countries whose influence is certainly felt. The ArtPole Agency invited five artists from Ukraine and five from Poland to participate in the project. Some participants are from the Ukrainian East and now cannot cross the newly created border and get home. Some are from other regions but frequently visit eastern Ukraine. Still others got there for the first time within the framework of the project. However, the artists were not limited by geopolitics only.
The artists created their projects at the border of different art disciplines, and sometimes interacting with each other, examining, in particular, the limits of their own artistic projects, marking new borders. Border is a concept intrinsic to all spheres of human activity. At the intersection of geographical, political, ethnic, ethical, physical, and eventually metaphysical borders, a field of the most intensive influences, analogies and contradistinctions emerges. The border separates. And unites. Borderline states — a border — a game.
The dynamics of borders creates symbols of entire epochs — The Great Wall of China and The Berlin Wall, Jordan and Bug. But even when art touches global themes, it’s about a very personal experience. About the distances that define private or even intimate space. And it’s borders where the most interesting stories appear.
Janusz Baldyga
Supported by Adam Mitskewych Institute and Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Kharkiv, in cooperation with Platform TIU (Mariupol) and Inkubator Kultury Pireus (Poznan).