Petra Grozaj: The Wall
According to the artist, the wall represents both the external and internal, psychological boundaries.
In both cases, however, it is about a symbolic, arbitrary ban: regardless whether it is a barrier that divides space as a political territory or cultural, identity zone, or the one that an individual builds within their own psychological reality, the barrier is a conditioned, and not a natural fact – it does not exist by itself, but always in relation to a specific real world or mental order. In “solving“ or removing such obstacles, the wall thus also points to the reality beyond itself – by mirroring the reality that is external to itself, which also includes the subject, as the bearer of the experience of being prevented, the wall points to the possibilities and solutions that are in no way connected to its physical existence, i.e. existence in question. It warns that it cannot be accessed directly, as a physical barrier, but solely through a symbolic reality it is a part of, the same as the observer. That, after all, it cannot be removed as a physical obstacle, physical coercion, but only included in symbolic reality in which the apparently oppressive nature of an object may even be completely transformed.
Petra Grozaj graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. She has exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions in the country and abroad. She represented Croatia at the BJCEM Biennial of Young Artists in Napoli. She has participated in study and artist-in-residence programs in Venice, Napoli, Paris, Berlin and Leipzig. Her works are part of private and gallery collections. She is a member of the Croatian Association of Artists and Croatian Freelance Artists Association. Petra lives and works in Zagreb.
