"...There are so many things I felt I need to tell you. Such a giant bunch of words that I couldn’t have inside anymore. So I started to write you a letter. I wrote and wrote, wrote and wrote. I was writing 17 days and still I was not satisfied because the more I wrote the more I wanted continue. Bit by bit it all turns to a magical ritual. ‘Is that necessary to share all this?’ I thought. — ‘Such a lot of words, such a lot of signs... it doesn’t matter all these. I just want you to hold my hand. My hand in your hand. Manus in mano..."
The very personal project I started on the 4th of May 2020, the time when the Covid-19 restrictions probably took the highest point all over the world. Set up from less than A4 I went bigger and bigger with my calligraphy. Writing everyday for 17 days, I have finished with a giant size of almost 8 meters, using the brush from a construction store (simply because there is no such a big size available in artistic shops). There are a lot of pieces (52 papers) but the message is simple and straight: the well-known latinism "Manus in Mano", refers to a need for physical touch, a simple request to hold a hand to feel calmness and support in difficult times of total isolation and loneliness.
I like to see how average objects and things found new values with just increasing their physical size. The same time I used the multiplying effect as well as in my previous works. Such strategy helps to emphasise the meaning of the message: a desperate need in physical touch in a hard time of pandemic restrictions. All the written parts (52 papers with handwritten calligraphy) were installed together at the Neon Gallery (Wroclaw Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Poland) in August 2020 for a couple of days to make a documentation of the project.
Video documentation, 0:32min.
This video shows the process of installation of all the pieces of the project together at the Neon Gallery (Wroclaw Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Poland) in August 2020.
"Letter to You" chronicles, digital photos, 4 – 21st of May, 2020, Varvara Tokareva's workshop / August 2020, The Neon Gallery, Wroclaw, Poland.