Kolner Serie # 21 

Curator: Immediately, I see an overwhelming sense of solitude, like a figure adrift in a stark, unsettling landscape. Editor: Yes, the artwork we're looking at is "Kolner Serie #21", a drawing realized in ink by Maria Bozoky. There isn't a known date for its execution. For me, it brings to mind the psychic landscapes of someone like Leonora Carrington. Curator: Ah, yes! The surreal, liminal space! Notice how the linework simultaneously defines and obscures. There’s this tension between the representational, in the figure, and the almost primal abstraction elsewhere. It makes me wonder about the function of boundaries, those borders where things shift from known to unknown. The black ink almost suffocates. Editor: Boundaries are key here, particularly when thinking about identity and exclusion. The lone figure appears caught between two oppressive blocks of dense black ink, which confine a middle ground delineated by these thin, tree-like lines. This recalls the socio-political struggles experienced in liminal spaces that speak to a history of being denied access and resources. Is this perhaps related to historical narratives associated with Bozoky’s lived experience? Curator: The composition emphasizes feelings of isolation, perhaps even an individual battling an insurmountable challenge, facing a world closing in. Note that Bozoky uses pen sketch alongside dense ink to enhance that tension; light verses dark, but with neither dominant, rather, enmeshed. This may suggest the interconnected nature of oppositional concepts: perhaps freedom cannot exist without restraint, or safety without vulnerability. Editor: Right. And that tension might speak to the anxieties that arise within social structures that demand conformity. Do we lose ourselves trying to navigate or negotiate such stark divisions? What’s reflected back? How does a society come to value some spaces over others and therefore decide who belongs and who doesn't? The materiality—the rawness of the ink and the visible strokes of the pen—add to this urgency. Curator: What is powerful is its visual metaphor, that perhaps even in confinement, figures persist. "Kolner Serie #21" invites you to reflect not only on visible forms, but also on the deeper recesses of your personal experience and of inherited histories. Editor: Agreed. Bozoky's work underscores that these personal reflections occur within a network of social and historical conditions. Hopefully, "Kolner Serie #21" provokes discussion around how our society can imagine a space for freedom, one which celebrates intersectional inclusion.