BWA Contemporary Art Gallery in Katowice

‘In every moment, for the arrival and for the departure’ (W każdym momencie, na przyjście i odejście)
title of Wojciech Brzoska’s book of poems (Poznań, WBPiCAK, 2015)

Carole Benzaken has been expanding on the motifs of clarity, depth and light for over twenty years, and she has just engaged in an artistic dialogue with architecture. The exhibition presents an artistic exploration and interpretation of Silesia and its heritage, made by an artist coming from a different cultural background.

From 29th  October to 6th  December the BWA Contemporary Art Gallery in Katowice will display a series of works depicting Benzaken’s travels made from the 1990s onwards. The choice of the word travel is well justified here, because the artist uses various media — from painting to laminated glass and video art — to cross the border between painting and decorative arts, and she skilfully combines various image codes and the ways in which these codes are perceived.

For the first time in Poland, the exhibition will show fifteen illuminated tables that make up her installation Saviv, saviv. The installation, which was specially designed for the Silesian exhibition, refers to the depiction of the biblical valley of dry bones from the Book of Ezekiel (37:1 –14). This passage led her to what seemed to be an obvious title for the display — Saviv, saviv, as a representation of the pulsating light that the Polish soil is bathed in. The work has now reached its destination.

The exhibition, which was premiered in 2014 in Nancy, portrays Carole Benzaken's artistic peregrinations. From Lorraine, land of the Polish king Stanisław Leszczyński (1677—1866), she headed for Silesia, from one time frame to another. The artist's interests revolve around the broadly understood theme of migration, especially in relation to Poland, which has functioned as a convergence point for migrating peoples par excellence. While reflecting on the past and present, she tries to create a notion of Europeanness, to parody Gombrowicz’s Polishness.

In a broader context, a lump of coal — a unique geological sample from the regions of Lorraine and Silesia — unifies the different worlds of Africa and Europe. The collective imagination may perceive coal as a symbol of both disputes over a territory and of reborn identity, constituting a dialectical image, in which — as Walter Benjamin put it — what has been is flashing up in the now of its recognizability*.

Therefore, the exhibition is held in a unique constellation, bringing together many places and times, 'in every instant, for the arrival and for the departure', asking us to face the history of this region, the artwork on display and our lives.

Carole Benzaken / Claire Stoullig
July 2015

* Walter Benjamin The Arcades Project

• Organizers

  

   

  

  

• Co-financed by