OUT/SIDE/IN
"Maps are always designs of the world. They do not show reality, but rather a bold interpretation." - Judith Schalansky, Atlas of Remote Islands
Borders are not rigid lines but rather provisional markings that shift, overlap, and take on new forms. In artistic practice, they do not appear as endpoints but as spaces in which meanings are suspended and new configurations become visible.
This is not a linear path from outside to inside as if the aim were to uncover a hidden interior. Rather, the relationship between the inside and the outside should be understood as a dynamic relationship: both sides are intertwined and marked by cultural and political inscriptions. Thus, the border proves to be not the end, but the beginning of a story. Identity does not appear as a fixed essence but as a process—a fluid formation constituted by shifts, breaks, and transitions.
Therefore, artistic practice focuses less on heroic transgression and more on tentatively circling around and dissolving opposites. Boundaries are not simply accepted, but redesigned—not as restrictions, but as open spaces of possibility. They reveal themselves as complex social and cultural landscapes in which power, imagination, and negotiation are inextricably intertwined.
Art that follows this approach understands boundaries as permeable structures—psychologically, socially, and symbolically. Their cracks reveal that the “outside” has long been inscribed within the “inside.” Artistic works make this interweaving tangible and open up spaces in which belonging, ethics, and aesthetics are not fixed but constantly renegotiated.
We are excited to see your projects and the ways in which you open up new approaches to this topic.