CROSSINGS is a video installation created in 2026 to mark the 20th anniversary of the first public screening of one of FemLink-Art's video works in Los Angeles, at the WCA. The international collective of female video artists was founded in 2005. The artists come from Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas :
Amaranta Sanchez (Mexico), Angelika Rinnhofer (Germany), C. M. Judge (USA), Cagdas Kahriman (Turkey / France), Carolina Saquel (Chile), Evgenija Demnievska (Serbia), Heejeong Jeong (South Korea), Irina Gabiani (Luxemburg / Georgia), Jelena Miskovic (Serbia), Katia Efimova (Russia), Liina Siib (Estonia), Lucy Azubuike (Nigeria), Maria Papacharalambous (Cyprus), Marilena Preda Sanc (Romania), Melis Bilgin (Turkey), Minoo Iranpoor (Iran), Mouna Jemal Siala (Tunisie), Ruth Bianco (Malta), Sima Zureikat (Jordanie), Tania Prilla (Indonesia), Véronique Sapin (France / Canada), Yue Liang (Chine)
CROSSINGS
Why are artifacts studied by historians, archaeologists, primatologists, art historians, museum professionals, anthropologists, and others?
Because they are connected to human existence and hold inexhaustible value in our encounter with ourselves and with others. Our capacity to see and understand the world is inseparable from our connection to the complexity and meaning of objects.
Over the past sixty years, humankind has changed the world we live in more than ever before. Artifacts represent the imprint humanity leaves behind and its dramatic consequences on natural environments and life in general. Now, by their sheer number and the materials they are made of, they pose threats to our survival and that of other species.
Each of the artists in FemLink-Art explores the notion of human existence through their selection of artifacts.
Concept
Each artist chooses objects for their symbolic value related to human existence.
The objects are interconnected. They traverse the image from one side to the other on different types of surfaces (grass, sand, road, snow, leaves, tiles, floorboards, etc.).
The images are divided into narrow "strips" the size of the objects dragged across different types of surfaces.
The image strips occupy the entire space.
The artists' image "strips" are grouped into a single sequence according to the types of surfaces traversed by the objects.
The artifacts cover the entire image, just as they occupy the entire planet.
Depending on the available equipment: projection on 1, 2, 3, or 4 walls + ceiling + floor
Principle
The artifacts are witnesses to our humanity, bearers of meaning as symbols of our existence. They allow us to understand ourselves, to situate ourselves in time and space, to connect with others and the world around us.
As symbolic mediators, they contribute to the development of major psychological functions: the "self" is constructed through the integration of the norms conveyed by the world of objects, through their use, their manipulation, and the behaviors they impose; for example, possessing an object is a significant act that demonstrates social stratification, symbolic hierarchies, and so on.
The installation is conceived as an archaeology of the present, a space where the viewer encounters the material traces of their own condition. The exhibited artifacts are presented in their functional bareness, sometimes damaged, sometimes intact: because the human impact is not only spectacular, it is continuous, pervasive, and commonplace.
A Visual and Emotional Choreography
Like life in constant evolution, objects approach, intersect, and move apart; their trajectories echo each other, creating a silent dialogue between experiences and sensibilities.
The Planet as a Writing Surface
Traveling across multiple surfaces, objects trace, graze, soil, and mark: they write the world in their own way. The planet becomes an immense page on which humanity, through its artifacts, continues to inscribe its passage. The title "Crossings" does not refer to movement from one point to another, but to the act of traversing the world, altering it, revealing it. Each surface traversed becomes an archive.
By crossing these successive surfaces, the artifacts draw an abstract cartography of the world. The audience recognizes each surface, but cannot locate them. This loss of spatial bearings reinforces the idea of a globalized world, where places resemble one another in their function as transit points.
The Planet as Transit Corridors
Each surface—sand, snow, road, grass, gravel, dust—alters the movement of objects, confronted with the harshness of reality: friction, inequality, the diversity of terrain. Artifacts traverse them without hierarchy or adaptation. Everything is merely a surface of passage. The planet is reduced to a succession of textures, like in a catalog or a studio set: it is a simple logistical support; what matters is what passes through it. It is nothing more than a series of surfaces compatible with the continuous passage of artifacts.
Artistic Intention
The intention is not to denounce directly, but to shift the perspective. Everyday objects—plastics, textiles, technological fragments—become witnesses to a time that transcends the human. They introduce a temporal dissonance: what we use for a few minutes or a few years is destined to persist for centuries. The installation thus creates a tension between the short timescale of human action and the long timescale of matter, revealing a form of unintentional yet systemic violence.
Nature is a transformed, pervasive, contaminated environment. The boundaries between the natural and the artificial become blurred. This indistinctness challenges the fiction of a separation between humans and their environment.
By materializing these elements, the installation seeks to produce a perceptual disturbance. What usually escapes our notice becomes tangible, almost intimate, inviting the viewer to a bodily as well as intellectual experience.
The Exhibition Space
The exhibition space is designed as a place of shared presence. The public is invited to move through the space to discover all facets of the installation and to create their own narrative path.
The visitor is not simply facing the artwork; they are immersed in it, physically and symbolically. They share the same space as the artifacts, breathe the same air, walk on marked surfaces. This proximity aims to suspend any position of moral superiority: there is neither a designated culprit nor any possibility of innocence.
Finally, the installation exists in a liminal space: neither an apocalyptic narrative nor a promise of reparation. It focuses on an intermediate, unstable state, where the world is not yet ruined but already profoundly transformed. In this sense, the work does not seek to conclude, but to leave open a space for responsibility, like a question left unanswered: what do we do with the traces we produce, and how will we live among them?
