In Miroslaw Balka’s ‘13 cm AF’ (2015) two parallel lines were drawn on a cardboard. The lower one represents the Anna Frank’s height when going into hiding in 1942, and the upper one, the girl’s height in 1944 when her family was denounced to the Nazi’s which resulted in her death at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945.
The space between the two lines is painted or perhaps anointed with myrth.
Balka uses height, gravity, distance, and continuous space in order to approach the necessity of understanding remembrance and memory itself. He brings the viewer in to a position of experience and absorption and as less of an observer and more of a witness. Realizing the importance behind sculptures relative to monuments and memorials, embracing fear and crossing thresholds, approaching an infinite search; whether it is to escape, or find the missing pieces/letters in order to reach an understanding. Balka creates a space where it is pertinent to acknowledge what it means to remember.