MARTA VOLKOVA &
SLAVA SHEVELENKO
go back
2020

Border remover

View in the Rembrandt park, Leiden

Working on the Border remover in the studio

During a walk through the harbor of Leiden a container caught our attention. It had “In nature there are no boundaries, they only exist in your mind” spray painted on it. We were stunned. “Borders” and “Boundaries” are recurring themes in our work. It could’ve also been the title of our work for the Rembrandt park in Leiden, which we were working on lately.

We entered the container and bumped into a remarkable apparatus. “Border remover” it said on the accompanying paperwork. “This machine can free you of your inner boundaries”. The documents revealed this was an unused prototype.

Who doesn't dream of liberating themselves from their inner boundaries? Or of a machine that can help you with that? Then there would be no more borders, and you would be able to move around the world freely.

We decided to place this machine in the Singelpark as an art piece. You can not get inside to test it. You can only look at it. But maybe the idea of the existence of a device like this is already enough? You don’t always have to realize your dreams; sometimes striving towards an ideal is more important.