Soft Power

2023-ongoing

installation

ballons

Can a fence made of balloons keep anyone out? The exhibition “Soft Power” points to the arbitrary nature of borders. In collaboration with the composer Ángeles Rojas, Paula Kaniewska explores the issue of divided and inaccessible space by employing balloons: enclosed and trapped air. These fragile, yet surprisingly flexible objects are the building blocks for Kaniewska’s barrier-shaped installation but would burst upon contact with the sharp wires of actual fences. The tension between the need to demarcate territory and the oppression of boundaries governs the exhibition – air deflates from this pumped-up border and resonates with the sounds of the confined spaces.