2006, ORGANIC LIFE, 13 years of Nad Wisłą Gallery, Wozownia gallery, Toruń

BERGAMOT GROUP

ORGANIC LIFE

Performance
2006
13 years of Nad Wisłą Gallery, Wozownia gallery, Toruń, Poland

27 min

Standing in the center of the room, we held a two-sided mirror measuring 70x70 cm. Holding the mirror and maintaining balance was difficult, as neither of us could see the partner we were interacting with. We could only rely on our tactile experience and intuition. The mirror shattered after approximately 27 minutes.
It was a balancing act on the edge of the visible and the invisible, trust and loss of control, order and destruction. This recalls Jacques Lacan’s ideas of the mirror as a metaphor for the formation of subjectivity. In a typical situation, the mirror helps one recognize their own “self,” but here it blurs identity, creating a state of disorientation.
In the history of art, mirrors have often been used to explore the female image, but in this case, gender roles are balanced: both participants are equally vulnerable in the face of their inability to see the other.
The shattered mirror becomes a point of transformation—a moment in which the previous system collapses, leaving something new in its place.