The Potemkin Pendulum

The Potemkin Pendulum explores the fragility of critical thinking, respectful debate and free speech in contemporary Western society. Moving images and text are projection-mapped onto an unstable arrangement of boxes, creating a theatrical façade where apparent progress may conceal structures that remain unchanged. The title brings together the illusion of the Potemkin village and the pendulum’s oscillation between extremes, questioning how societies lose—and seek to recover—their balance. Images formed through light and prisms meet contradictory statements, placing physical illumination in tension with metaphorical darkness. Resisting ideological certainty, the work offers questions rather than conclusions, inviting viewers to examine their assumptions and consider what genuine openness requires.