S2E2: Shedding Thresholds

Yelyzaveta Burtseva, Olha Horiunova & Margo Dubovska

31.10. – 10.11.2024

The subject of any experience inevitably crosses the point of no return in order to reach the bottom, to then push back from it and repeat this natural rhythmic dance. The subject leaves the womb and yearns for the lost Eden, unconsciously seeking a return to it. The subject sheds its coarser skin, revealing the raw self beneath, the old shell in which it has grown tight, in order to grow a new one until the time comes to shed it again. According to an ancient myth, there was once no death—people would shed their skin like snakes, renewing themselves over and over, until one day, someone donned their old skin and died. This armor is no longer there, and the new one has not yet expanded, jeopardising the void inside the endless loop. This phase of vulnerability and fragility depends on how the new skin will be pieced together.

Shedding Thresholds features works by Yelyzaveta Burtseva (student at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna), Olha Horiunova and Margo Dubovska (both students at Transmediale Kunst, University of Applied Arts Vienna).