Separate – neon

The symbol used on the flag and repeated on the neon sign is a drawing from the textile work Dwa/Pół (from the series ‘Tablecloths’), which was created during the first lockdown. It depicts the well-known and frequently used gesture in Polish history of fingers arranged in a victory sign, with the distance between them emphasized. It conveys the frustration and helplessness that accompanied residents of many countries around the world during the first lockdown.

The victory sign was popularized by Winston Churchill as a gesture of faith in the Allied victory in World War II. In the late 1960s, it was used by protesters against the Vietnam War. From the 1980s, we associate it with Solidarity. It is a symbol accompanying pivotal moments in history, carrying hope.

The end of World War II marked the beginning of the division of Europe into East and West, the start of another totalitarianism. The Solidarity breakthrough in Poland brought privatization and capitalism. In 2014, Putin began the annexation of Crimea. In 2016, Donald Trump won the presidential election in the USA, equating politics with business. In 2020, Brexit was voted for in the United Kingdom, and the Covid-19 pandemic divided the world into the online and the real, which began to threaten health and life. Climate catastrophe became inevitable*. The world has been divided, and this will never change. The two fingers in the victory sign have been separated. They describe reality as it is: difficult, contradictory, unbearable. And yet, these two separated fingers still form a gesture behind which hope follows.

The neon sign was first shown as part of the Artistic Stage of the 21st International Film Festival New Horizons, Midnight Show V: More Light! in Wrocław, August 13–22, 2021.

* The text refers to work created in 2021 and does not take into account the re-election of Donald Trump and the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.