FAR AWAY, 2025
Photobastei, Zurich, Switzerland

Artists:
Arthur Bondar,
Oksana Yushko
Sound,
field recordings:
Philip Bartels
Curator: Oksana Yushko
Design: Konstantin Eremenko

Theatre production ‘In weiter Ferne’: ox&ol (Simone Keller and Philip Bartels)

«YOU WILL FIND THERE’S A LOT WRONG WITH THIS PLACE» FROM «FARAWAY» BY CARYL CHURCHILL

The exhibition FAR AWAY is conceived as both a stage set and an expanded multi-room score, taking inspiration from Caryl Churchill’s play of the same name. It tests how far we are, how far we have already stepped in. It does not offer a solution. Instead, it opens a path towards Entdunkeln, a process of un-darkening, of bringing things to light, where walking through becomes a rehearsal for making decisions and taking actions beyond the gallery, like stepping out of Plato’s cave.

Each room treats borders as both architecture and arguments: white lines mapped onto walls trace alpine property marks, ‘contaminated landscapes’, an impossible sunset, and the invisible boundaries we draw inside our heads. Distance becomes a visual experience that shift the borders of acceptability. Moving closer, we enter a world where truth is obscured, beauty becomes complicit, borders shift and blur, and even weather and animals seem to take sides.

The works of artists Arthur Bondar and Oksana Yushko and field recordings by musician and theater director Philip Bartels guide viewers through a carefully curated narrative. The journey mirrors the play’s arc. Starting at night we walk Joan’s path through fears, propaganda and the disorientation of war into ‘the society of the spectacle’ and uncertainty, emerging with only partial clarity and even more questions.

Borders, which we otherwise perceive as clear lines on maps, reveal themselves on closer inspection to be fluid, fragile and multi-layered. The Swiss Alpine region is one example of this: Switzerland and Italy have had to adjust their shared border because the Theodul Glacier below the Matterhorn has shrunk significantly due to climate change. Where ice previously formed the natural dividing line, rock has now been exposed, forcing both countries to redraw the border. Thus, events that seem more or less far away, such as the retreat of glaciers, have a direct impact on political and geographical orders.

Borders constantly change in places such as between Russia and Georgia, Russia and Ukraine, and Armenia and Azerbaijan, due to wars and their consequences. Borders are not static. They are the result of crises, negotiations between nature and politics, power and powerlessness, proximity and distance.

The exhibition and the following theatre production ‘In weiter Ferne’ by ox&ol, as well as a series of concerts, reveals how distance is often closer than we think and how engaging with borders always sheds light on our own position in the world.