Traversing the Body as a Dividing Line

The body is where birth and death meet. A shelter for the visceral and the intangible, dreams and voids both tactile and inaccessible – it is our only home which is constant in its physical presence. When the world is in chaos, we pinch ourselves to be sure of what is real. Our body is a touchstone, something to hold on to, learn on; a figure that can be powerful amidst feelings of powerlessness.

Negotiating the space between potential and paralysis, many of the artworks exhibited embody the effects of displacement and the skewed reality of living with a foot in two different worlds. Straddling an invisible horizon, the artists grapple with boundaries of freedom, the rituals of letting go and the boundless effects of war.

The exhibition Traversing the body as a dividing line spans many mediums, the human body can appear to be the central narrative, however, often humanness is used as a tool to highlight the nature of the landscape; social-political, emotional or environmental.

Exhibiting artists Alexandra Krolikowska, Anastasiia Sviridenko, Maria Kulikovska, Polina Choni, Sergii Shaulis and Stanislava Ovchinnikova have been part of the Ukraine Solidarity Residency Programme during 2023 organised by HIAP-Helsinki International Artist Programme.