Sandbox
At what precise moment do we leave childhood and become adults? Historically, society provided a clear map for this transition (a route marked by defined milestones such as a stable job, a home, or starting a family) but today, that map has vanished. We live in an era defined by the dissolution of these «classic» markers, where adulthood is no longer a fixed destination, but an ambiguous process of uncertainty. This erosion of external certainties has transformed what was once a visible event into an internal psychological experience; an extended liminal phase, as defined by Victor Turner, governed by subjective duration rather than a biological clock. We face the paradox of needing to mature within a culture that no longer provides the coordinates to navigate the journey.
Sandbox is constructed within this interpretive void, seeking to capture the tension of the process itself: the act of crossing. The installation’s base, a 2×2 meter metal square filled with sand, evokes the childhood sandbox, a contained, safe space defined by a firm structure. Here, the sand represents the past: the passive raw material. From this aridity, glass pieces ascend toward the ceiling. Forged from the sand itself through fire and pressure, this glass embodies the concept of becoming. It is no longer the malleable material of play, but something new, elevated, and transcendent.
The work confronts us with the reality that, in the absence of external rites, we are forced to use the raw material of our own past to actively construct our identity. Sandbox exists at the intersection of personal experience and structural history, offering not a solution to contemporary ambiguity, but a threshold. It is the physical and symbolic space where transformation occurs. A necessary, confusing, and unstable moment we must all traverse to erect our own definition of being an adult.
200 x 200 cm
Iron square, sand, wax, glass
2025