FORMS OF EVERYDAYNESS
Polish Institute Budapest,HU
26.04.2017–31.05.2017
As the anthropologist Roch Sulima once wrote – everyday life is as inevitable as the weather (…) it is practised and requires no definition. On the other hand, perhaps in our post-modern era we should endeavour to define everydayness anew? This is the question that is posed by four young artists from Krakow. Living as we are in times aspiring to a hyperreality that is more attractive than the surrounding world, they invite us to reflect on the essence of everydayness. They are going back to the “roots” of things. Their main focus of interest is the material world of objects, which nowadays appears to speak louder than any other world, but in which things, instead of lasting a long time, are condemned to the rubbish heap or rapidly exchanged for something else. They are interested in discovering the hidden potential of such objects, seeking the “otherness” in what is closest and most obvious. The banal of everydayness is revealed in the unexpected, sometimes humorous side of their works. In a series of staged photography Michalina Bigaj seeks a simulacrum of authentic nature in our own surroundings. She is fascinated by the “world” of artificial plants and photo wallpaper, which provide people with a substitute for real contact with nature. Meanwhile Bartłomiej Węgrzyn finds a new application for materials "in the industrial spirit", by creating post-minimalist objects out of them, while at the same time revealing the tension between two disciplines that are close to one another in our era: sculpture and design. In turn, Adrian Kolerski steps beyond the limitations of the painting medium in his picture-objects, by purposely creating cracked and aging surfaces on his works, thereby encouraging the viewer to reflect on the questions of destruction and transience. Kolerski’s works also conjure up associations with “scaled” objects-musical instruments and perhaps with tools or “ancient” machines? Michał Sroka, on the other hand, focuses his attention on forms-modules (his preferred shape is the rectangle), forever present in visual culture. He sees them in painting, sculpture, and architecture as well as in the world of everyday things. These artists from Krakow use a varied formal language because they feel an affinity for DIY aesthetics and are also driven by a desire to refresh the traditions of modernism, especially in its minimalist variations. The most important thing here is their attempt to create an unobvious, somewhat ironic metaphor for everydayness.
Artists;
Michalina Bigaj, Adrian Kolerski, Michał Sroka, Bartłomiej Węgrzyn
HU Máté Balázs, Baráth Áron, Forgó Árpád
Curator:
Agnieszka Jankowska - Marzec, Tomasz Piars