THRESHOLD IS REALITY

Artists Mira Boczniowicz
Genre Sculpture
Edition Survival 12

Boczniowicz created a subtle intervention next to the main entrance to the Pharmacy building, a stone slab with a hand carved inscription reading A LIMEN EST REI, i.e. “threshold is reality.” The visitor could easily fail to classify the bas relief as one of SURVIVAL’s works, recognizing its functional dimension only – of a threshold that seemed to be an integral architectural element of the building. The artist noticed that postmodern architecture often rejects the threshold, which results in blurring the boundaries between the external and the internal. Using the logic of artistictautology, Boczniowicz posed a question about the real role of the threshold perceived as a peculiar aspect of a moment of transition. As an object that had to be crossed, Boczniowicz’s work seemed to separate the festival’s art space from the everyday reality of the city. If this interpretation was correct, the work seemed to call into question some of SURVIVAL’s postulates, namely those concerning the integrating role of art in the public sphere and the idea of the city as a place for artistic and social dialogue.

> Małgorzata Miśniakiewicz