KONRAD MACIEJEWICZ. Cinderella

Konrad Maciejewicz. Cinderella
(installation, collages)

The figure of Cinderella is the point of departure and the central motif of Konrad Maciejewicz’s exhibition at the Arsenal Gallery. Yet in his works, the innocent heroine of the well-known fairy tale acquires the attributes of a fetishist symbol. Here, as in his earlier realizations, Maciejewicz reinterprets myths, legends and tales, as well as their archetypal protagonists. He makes use of borrowings from various areas of the heritage of the past and from contemporary iconosphere.

Collage is the medium most frequently used by Maciejewicz in the creation of his dark visual narratives. In this, he makes use of photographs from old illustrated magazines. His method relies on cutting out and affixing images like in classical collage, but his creative process has a special facet. Violence is an unavoidable element of Maciejewicz’s works, and the topics he embraces are frequently associated with death and the beginning of new life. Maciejewicz dissects cultural material and subjects the human body, objects and architecture to fragmentation in order to achieve a new quality by joining the fragments. He transforms “innocent” images, thus completely altering their identity. His search for appropriate elements with which to construct his works, as well as the operations he performs on images, are the artist’s personal journey into the universe of visual culture on the edge of obsession. Maciejewicz’s collages demonstrate that, as a narrative medium, photographic material may become an object of fantasy in the same sense as a fairy tale.

Translated form the Polish by Klaudyna Michałowicz

Konrad Maciejewicz– born 1980 in Lubartów, Poland. He graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University (UMCS) in Lublin. The artist creates drawings on paper and collages which combine painting and photography. He explores the language of collage in his objects and installations. Maciejewicz is the winner of the Polish edition of Henkel Art Award (2013) and laureate of the Prize of the Mayor of the City of Bielsko-Biała at the 41st Painting Biennale Bielska Jesień 2013. Selected solo exhibitions: Transform me, Zachęta Project Room, Warsaw (2012), Asylum, Galeria Biała, Lublin (2011). Selected group exhibitions: 41st Painting Biennale Bielska Jesień 2013 (2013); Time of Collage, Kordegarda Gallery, Warsaw (2013); Ars Loci – Actual Picture, Workshops of Culture, Lublin (2012); KordegAART! No Budget Show 3, Kordegarda Gallery, Warsaw (2011); 6th Young Triennial, Centre of Polish Sculpture, Orońsko (2011); 40th Painting BiennaleBielska Jesień 2011, Galeria Bielska BWA, Bielsko-Biała (2011). The artist lives and works in Warsaw.

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