STILL LIFE

Artists: Magda Bielesz / Katarzyna Frankowska / Wojciech Gilewicz / Agata Groszek / Bartosz Kokosiński / Monika Mamzeta / Jan Mioduszewski / Marek Model / Paweł Mysera / Anna Panek / Jacek Poremba / Katarzyna Sobczuk / Marta Szulc / Małgorzata Widomska

Curator: Agata Groszek

The very notion of still life immediately evokes the spirit of painter and art theorist Jan Cybis. Cybis enjoyed painting still lifes because, in his view, this genre perfectly fulfilled the requirements of colourism — as a subject, it is free from national or religious content, allowing one to focus solely on form. Cybis did not anticipate that times would soon come when everything would become significant. Times in which every object becomes a carrier of information, an attribute, a symbol, a sign — silently pointing to a person, a nation, a country of production, or a region of extraction.

The objects in our exhibition were born from human need, yet many of the items from which they were made arose not from necessity but from compulsive desire. They sublimate an impulse that manifests both in overproduction and the compulsive collecting of trivial trophies. Their durability surpasses the average human lifespan; so why not compile art from them? Perhaps the beauty retrieved from the clutter of everyday life is already that decadent manifestation of tenderness in which the human eye continues its quiet training.

The material from which still life is born is rich and varied; traditionally, it was shaped and framed by the appropriate recording medium — painting, for instance. In this exhibition, it becomes the artwork itself.

Secondary manipulations — poetic transformations of found objects, and the deconstruction of their original meaning — can be seen as a form of postproduction that has gained the status of a legitimate creative process. Due to its over-century-long tradition and prevalence, the element of mockery or dissent has quieted within it. Therefore, although in a certain sense we mimic children’s play, it becomes increasingly serious. It no longer needs to be argued that aesthetic values can be realised just as well in a pile of arranged finds or in an assemblage, as in a work traditionally associated with so-called high culture, such as a canvas painting or a marble sculpture. Objects of various origins coexist harmoniously in the exhibition space. All of them speak of human desire, of the human and their things.

Małgorzata Widomska

COLOPHONE

14.05 – 17.08.2025

Art Walk Gallery, plac Europejski, Warszawa

Artists: Inne Towarzystwo + gościnie/goście: Magda Bielesz / Katarzyna Frankowska / Wojciech Gilewicz / Agata Groszek / Bartosz Kokosiński / Monika Mamzeta / Jan Mioduszewski / Marek Model / Paweł Mysera / Anna Panek / Jacek Poremba / Katarzyna Sobczuk / Marta Szulc / Małgorzata Widomska
Curator: Agata Groszek (Inne Towarzystwo)
Curatorial text: Małgorzata Widomska
Translation: Monika Mamzeta
Graphic Design: Konrad Maciejewicz

Organisers: Fundacja Sztuka w Mieście, Ghelamco

Photo documentation: Tomasz Siczyński, Jacek Poremba

VIDEO