Backs

Mediums: jute fabric, resin.
Location: The Dallas Museum of Modern Art, Texas (the USA).

When critics or viewers who saw the composition asked whether it was Auschwitz’s tragedy or religious ceremony, or the Ramayana dance, Abakanowicz said that any option is the right one. In the texts describing the work, the author did not indicate any direct associations, as if she wanted to protect their internal homogeneity and hide the meaning. This composition of headless, painlessly colourless figures made on the same form, in different versions, contains a different number of characters. There are 80 of them at contemporary art museums in Busan (South Korea) and Dallas (USA), and 40 are at the Hiroshima City Museum (Japan). The sizes and materials are also not the same. In Hiroshima, they are bronze and in the form of hollow halves.