FRANCISZEK ORŁOWSKI – Potential city

In his works Franciszek Orłowski in a particular way refers to the architecture as a place that is created and shaped by social and emotional attitudes. His last work – Potential City (from which the title of the exhibition at the Arsenal Gallery comes) – is the continuation of intimate and personal analysis of modern human relations which are typical for his activity.

PotentialCity (2012) is a model created with the idea that the city’s vitality depends on the potential of its citizens. A flat, plastic plate, which is in fact a pregnancy test, constitutes the architectural module here. The potential city model is composed of such countless modules. Precisely arranged, but not connected to each other or to the ground, the monotonous urban rows are exposed to the interference of the exhibition participants.

The artist doesn’t regard himself as a passive observer. His “sculptural events” always initiate the process that in a conscious way gets out of the artist’s control – like the Changes, which are passed from one hand to another, or the Potential City, built of hundreds of pregnancy tests, which disintegrates and becomes impoverished before our eyes during the exhibition duration. In a work Insomnia (2010) the artist sets in the wall of a cold, white room refrigerator with snow inside. The walled artifact, which is set in suspension between two states of aggregation, constitutes a component of emotions that are linked to the inner cold, uncertainty, impotence. The artist leaves it in the deposit – like a luggage in the storage.

Many of my projects refer to the characteristics of space. In my realizations I compare fragments of reality initiating the processes of their permeation. It often happens that the projects become an appeal to the recipient’s senses. I am interested in the issue of existential dilemmas which I express within the social perspective – says the artist.

Franciszek Orłowski (1984) graduated from the Department of Intermedia at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań/Poland. In the last years, he participated in the following exhibitions: After Socialist Statuesat the KIM? Contemporary Art Centre (Riga/Latvia, 2011), Mir at the Arsenal Gallery in Białystok/Poland (2011), Selected Projects at BWA Zielona Góra/Poland (2011), Do It Like That at the Stereo Gallery (Poznań/Poland, 2010), Zerreißproben in Lepiziger Kreis (Leipzig/Germany, 2010), Nie ma sorry at Museum of Modern Art (Warsaw/Poland, 2008), Mediation Biennale (Poznań/Poland, 2008).

Sponsor of the exhibition:

Cooperation: Strzykała_Studio