Liminal is a video installation that deals with the transformational nature of language and communication through symbolic aspects. The project started as an experiment in which artist involved people coming from different national and linguistic backgrounds; from Sweden, France, UK to Serbia and United States. She gave them an assignment - to write a short story of their choosing, true or fictional, and focus on memorizing its general content. Then they were instructed to elaborate these stories in imaginary languages resembling their own with rhythm and sound, as well as in foreign languages that they were not familiar with. During the experiment they were also asked to express in freestyle form the emotional states that they were experiencing at the time. The intention of the experiment was to explore how people function outside structured syntaxes. Everything that we perceive in the world, we connect with symbols - they determine our understanding of form and concepts. Language itself is created from these notions and serves as an identifying tool for trade and conformation of existing reality. When people are asked to function outside of structured linguistic context they usually fail to establish logical narrative in their minds. It becomes playful and painful practice, because they lose the orientation of pre-learned symbolic. Therefore their mentality is set in absolute state of indeterminacy, where outcomes have no predictive mathematical narrative. The concept of the video installation is presented for the viewer to engage in an associative creative process and establish her/his own subjective perception. The video contains three main phases that represent liminal stages of communication: Conception, Present: The Gospel of Self-Loss, Spring. Each stage has its own focal point and shows one of the transitions of the communication process. The video installation is put together in a nonlinear/non-narrative way, giving space for ambiguous interpretation. (Source: Andrea Knezović)

The video Liminal in the DIVA Station archive is edition 1/6.