Bord(h)ers

Why

The project is about women of different ages and with different background. They are all different, but all of them have something in common, something deeply hidden – borders. Borders that are already crossed or will never be crossed, borders real and mental, borders created by politics, religion, tradition, fear, social criticism, complexes, discrimination etc. “Bord(h)ers” is an interdisciplinary art and social project, which consists of interviews with women and their own visualization of their stories about the borders made by them. The name of the project describes the femininity of the topic and the perception of the borders from the point of view of a woman born in a patriarchal society. Does she feel comfortable being a woman? Does she like her body? Which superstitions does she have? Or maybe fears? Or beliefs?

Location

Grodzka 5, 20-400 Lublin, Poland

Characteristics

How the audience/participants were reached or discovered

I was looking for women crossing my own borders.

Met them on a street.

Knocked their doors:

Visited them:

How it was done

How

Interviews

Collecting stories:  I made interviews with women I met in Lublin about their borders. These borders were stories from their everyday life, woes and, more over, fears. I talked with women from all social straits and backgrounds. The women were invited to have a 1 or 2 hour talk (sometimes we meet few times) in different places comfortable for them, where their stories were recorded.

Sound

There was made a sound installation based on the stories of women I talked with. And one more sound+light installation with a noise of the wall-breaking moment, where women where mentioning their fears and sins.

Drawing

Interviewed women were invited to draw their borders the way they see them.

Exhibitions

The exhibition took place 8 of September at Galeria Labirynt2.

Writing

During all time in Lublin I was writing a diary about Bord(h)ers and its women. The future book Bord(h)ers will be based on this diary.

Results

Those 11 women I met them all in a small Polish city: a girl who is fighting with cancer, a woman who leaves a good paid job in the embassy and goes to travel with her bike, a blind street musician, victim of violence, a young single mom, a lesbian, a black skin woman, a woman who decided to leave her husband and her job and write a blog for women, an ex-punk rock singer, a foreigner, and an eco-village activist.

How it went

Main lessons learned

When I begun the project I was expecting to hear about women and their borders or problems. At the end I realized, that all of them already overcame their borders. They changed my project. But I consider that my success, not failure. I de-objectivized them and let them be a part of my project, make it flexible and alive.

Inspiration

My inspiration was Lublin and its secret places where you can escape from reality.

Credits

My best guide ever in Lublin was Magda Luczyn. She made me to fall in love with this city and showed me some lovely or horrible , but still amazing places in the city, where tourists and even locals don’t go.

Activity Timeline