Artworks by a Spanish artist Anna Malagrida (b. 1970) were shown during the first day of “Tedium” programme together with the pieces by a Cuban artist Glenda León (b. 1976). These artists are connected by the lyric tonality of their works, and by their attention towards the topic of division as well. This division can be both physical — between inside and outside, — and metaphorical — between personal and common. For constructing or revealing those borders, the artists turn to the contrast technique — between darkness and light, sound and silence, ephemeral and eternal, while each reality hides another one beneath.

“The Window Cleaner” (2010) opening to the programme the art of Anna Malagrida exhibits main attributes and traits of her work. The screen simultaneously becomes a window into the outside and a division between the outside and intimate personal reality. Being a static observer, we see the reality transforming in front of us. Here the window cleaner becomes an actor, whose moves become creative acts influencing our perception of reality, while we are left to watch.  

“Borders” (2009) is the longest piece of the programme: for 18 minutes we watch the red smoke covering a mountain scene. The video is made with a continuous shot in the Corbières mountains — the former border between Spain and France. On the one hand, the smoke acts as a metaphor for the memories bound up in these places, that till the mid-17th century were one of the most tense and militarized zones of the region. On the other, it reminds us that people invent all the borders, and smoke has no problems with penetrating those.

“Woman Dance” (2007), a very intimate piece, establishes a dialogue between interior and exterior space. A small window is covered with black material, that reveals the outside one second, and separates us from it the next. So, the window itself is reminiscent of the face of a veiled woman, and in trying to construct a dialogue, we are left in the attempts to get the shades of her emotions in-between the veils.