On Generation and Corruption — exhibition
Artists:
Ewa Axelrad
Piotr Bosacki
Bartek Buczek
Dorota Buczkowska
Pavlína Fichta Čierna
Zdena Kolečková
Denisa Lehocká
Little Warsaw
Grupa Rafani
Iza Tarasewicz
Andrzej Szewczyk
Curators: Marta Lisok and Jan Trzupek
Free admission.
On Generation and Corruption is an indistinct and wandering tale about the limitations of a language. The starting point is Soliloquia, a 1985 work by Andrzej Szewczyk and works contributed by other artists invited to collaborate on this exhibition seem wound on it as if it were a spool. Szewczyk's volume, covered in neatly spaced rows of kindred characters, keeps these quasi micro-organisms in a temporary unity of meaning.
Each work has a similar mode of function, based on a meticulously devised internal code mechanism. Each has a short decipher-by date and requires detailed decoding instructions, a lengthy commentary by the artist. These unique models of the universe that have been assembled for the exhibition follow the logic of oscillation. Nothing here happens in accordance with the rules of linear thinking — a default category for a mind nurtured on the alphabet, which quite predictably stretches from point A to point B. There are opposing meanings which keep on reversing clumsily, forever coming back to square one, endlessly self-replicating, fixed at one singular moment, running away from themselves, self-reproducing, becoming stuck or simply perishing. Meanings are built on the spot, in an unpredictable manner and in absolute dependence on the attitude of the audience. The unrelenting task of coining names and terms has no end, taking on a sluggish rhythm of temporary connections and separations.
These codes, which have anyway been faulty since the onset, are awaiting some daredevil explorers. In the installation by Iza Tarasewicz, light from the projector is absorbed by a hemp fibre screen; the micro-organisms in Piotr Bosacki's video fall into decay; the book that Bartek Buczek leaves in a yeast-filled jar ferments throughout the exhibition while Dorota Buczkowska's butter-sculpted totem melts; Denisa Lehocká's installation remains suspended in forced balance; there is a gigantic image roaming the gallery walls, which was designed by the Rafani group; the work by Little Warsaw requires that the audience brings it to life with highly complex machinery. There is no guarantee whatsoever that this glamorous surface conceals a vast store of knowledge. Rather, any appealing meaning appears only for a fleeting instant.
Curator: Marta Lisok
