Mariia Popovych - I Am Made of Sugar

Description

«You're not made of sugar – you won't melt.» Mariia Popovych has known this phrase since her childhood in Ukraine. It means: Hang in there. Don't be so sensitive. Her response is short: «I am made of sugar.» Mariia Popovych's art action begins in the public spaces of Biel and Bern. At weekly intervals, posters appear: YOU ARE NOT MADE OF SUGAR. Then: YES, I AM. Finally: I AM MADE OF SUGAR, with the location and time of the exhibition. Some posters are torn down, others provoke conversations. A passerby stops and says: «Maybe I am also made of sugar.» At the Kulturmuseum Bern, the linguistic assertion is literally represented by a small, awkward human figure made of sugar cubes. For the opening, the artist makes cotton candy all evening. It is not eaten but collected and remains in the room until the end of the exhibition. Over time, it changes shape, becomes a mass, until it is reprocessed into cotton candy at the closing. Solid, airy, sticky, soft, or dense: the state changes, but the material remains the same. The exhibition «I Am Made of Sugar» is the beginning of a long-term artistic cycle by Mariia Popovich. Language is the starting point of her art. Sayings, literary finds, and small shifts in meaning develop into objects, drawings, texts, installations, and performances. Mariia Popovych studied cultural studies in Ukraine. She lives and works in Bern and is active as a multimedia designer in Spiez. Whether we are also made of sugar will become clear. Welcome to the Kulturmuseum Bern. Admission is free. Source: Verein Hinto.ch License: CC BY-SA 4.0