Border Lines
Border Lines is an installation by Simple Architecture, presented at Buna – Forum for Contemporary and Interdisciplinary Art in Varna, Bulgaria. The forum was realized with the financial support of the Ministry of Culture of Bulgaria, Institut français de Bulgarie, Ambassade de France en Bulgarie, Municipality of Varna, The Singer-Zahariev Foundation, and the Embassy of Slovenia. The installation was placed in the garden of the City Art Gallery of Varna and was composed of five mirrored volumes.
One of the oldest gestures by which humans have marked the boundary between the known and the unknown is the wall. The straight wall – linear, rigid, and absolute, is an act of defiance against nature. There are no straight lines in the natural world. The moment one appears, it reveals the presence of human intellect and intentionality. The wall separates, divides, protects. It is the first gesture of architecture, and perhaps the first gesture of power.
In the context of present-day society, the symbolic act of separation is undergoing radical change. Physical boundaries between societies are increasingly losing their power and authority, and the world is gradually moving towards a common universal society. The walls that we once built to establish boundaries, offer protection or limit access are now being replaced by invisible, often digital, barriers. The separation is no longer between here and there, us and them, but between reality and simulation, presence and projection, the tangible and the intangible.
This installation presents a linear arrangement of five mirrored columns. Together they evoke the idea of a wall, but one that is fragmented, transparent, and dematerialized. The reflective surfaces absorb their surroundings, blurring the distinction between objects and the environment, and between the self and others. As viewers move around the installation, they see their reflection fractured and multiplied, which resembles the split identities that often exist in virtual spaces.
In the era of hyper-connectivity and digital duality, a new type of boundary is emerging: the one between the real and the virtual, and between our physical selves and our digitally curated personas. Rather than blocking or excluding, this wall reflects, distorts and invites introspection, becoming a totem of transition – a shimmering threshold that questions not only where we are, but also who we are in the age of virtual realities.
Rather than building walls, the installation deconstructs them, leaving only vertical fragments behind, like relics of a time when borders were solid and identities were singular. The piece invites visitors to discover themselves not as static beings in a single world, but as shifting presences navigating the complex multilayered landscape of Society 5.0.
