2002 / 2024 / 2025
object, ready-made, action
site-specific / variable dimensions
At 90°, the fence becomes a staircase.
The object remains the same.
The perception does not.
THE STORY
The work began in 2002, when I found a discarded piece of fence picket lying in the street in Yekaterinburg. I brought it home, washed and cleaned it, and took it to the exhibition Eurasian Syndrome 2 at the Museum of Fine Arts in Yekaterinburg. I realized that when a fence is turned 90 degrees, it can become a staircase: what normally stops movement can invite it.
The sentence “Fence becomes a staircase if the angle of view changes” stayed with me and gradually became a guiding principle in my work.
In 2024, the work continued in different ways. For Crossing Borders in Slovenia, a suitable fence could not be found in Hungary, so I bought a piece of fence at OBI and sent it to the exhibition. Later that year, at an art camp, I found a piece of fence lying on the ground, turned it as a staircase, and photographed it.
In 2025, in Rácalmás, Hungary, I saw an old piece of fence already positioned vertically inside an abandoned building. Nothing needed to be changed. I only placed the label beside it.
The work had reached a point where the transformation no longer needed to be made. It only needed to be recognized.
EXHIBITED
– Crossing Borders, 2024, Beka 9, Slovenia
– Eurasian Syndrome, 2002, Museum of Fine Arts, Yekaterinburg
______________
“… What could be simpler than turning a solid fence into a staircase? (…)All it takes is a little goodwill and inventiveness. But do we all have that?..”
— Yulia Filippova, Ural Worker, 2002
ARCHIVE
– Catalogue, Eurasian Syndrome, 2002
– Ural Worker, August 24, 2002
– Festival booklet, Crossing Borders, 2024
Museum of Fine Arts, Yekaterinburg, 2002
CONTINUATION
No transformation occurred.
Only its recognition.