MIR

The exhibition refers to the legal term domestic peace (mir domowy). Although devoid of any emotional connotations, in fact it evokes, a little bit unexpectedly perhaps, literary associations: the cosy hearth and home, as well as idyllic family life, yet coupled with a sense of its impending end. Mir domowy as a legal term is used in Polish almost exclusively in negative context such as ‘the breach of domestic peace’ (naruszenie miru domowego), which, according to the Criminal Code, occurs when a person unlawfully and against our will trespasses on the area of our everyday domestic existence.

MIRis an exhibition about the house/home and the family who live there. Yet just like in the legal context, the eponymous term mir is used here in a perverted sense, as most works presented at the exhibition deal with all the unnerving, suffocating and oppressive things that are enclosed within the four walls of our homes. This is supposed to draw people’s attention to the idea that a private space is free from any social control and as such transforms the dynamics of interpersonal relations. As far as the experiences of an individual are concerned, the exhibition emphasises how fascinating a state it is when a single unrestrained thought allows itself to descend deep into its own inner recesses, thus penetrating the areas of absolute freedom and provoking unexpected reactions.

The exhibition also points out the habits that human perception adheres to and the elements of architecture that yield to an immense array of psychological interpretations, and yet frequently escape our attention. This is why this exhibition discusses a range of themes which refer to how a contemporary human being functions in the context of the space that he or she inhabits. Hence it becomes apparent then that the exhibition revolves around the relation between psychology and architecture. MIR is all about the Interior, of a house, of a gallery, and, finally, of one’s head. We are trying to decipher how the relationship between the house and the existence that dwells inside it really works, a relationship that has been constructed as a story within a story. The issue whether the universal experience of architecture is in any way reflected in the subjective moment of actually experiencing it is equally worth examining.

The idea behind the exhibition also takes into account the specific venue: the rooms in the Arsenal Gallery resemble the layout of a big apartment. Unlike in other galleries with one dominant space, the gallery in Białystok is more of a maze, which, on the one hand, makes it hard for the audience to move around freely, and on the other enables them to make startling discoveries. The map of the space is not even remotely obvious; it evolves constantly and inspires fresh interpretations every time the gallery visitor moves on to another room.

Zuzanna Hadryś
Michał Lasota

Translated by Katarzyna Sawicka

Finisage of the exhibition will take place during the Night of Museums, on May 14th, 2011.
 
Programme:
lecture by Sebastian Cichocki
performance by Wojciech Bąkowski
Kristen concert
screening of the film „Nosferatu” by Jacek Malinowski  

Ewa Axelrad
Born 1984. Based in London and Gliwice.
Axelrad’s scope includes photography and installation. She creates psychologically loaded photographic installations that focus on exposing the violence hidden in architecture and in seemingly trivial interpersonal situations.
 
Wojciech Bąkowski
Born 1979. Based in Poznań.
His scope involves animated films, videos, performance, installations and objects. His works combine sophisticated form and poetic overtones with crude existential message. He collaborates with the Stereo Gallery (Galeria Stereo).
 
Michał Budny
Born 1976. Based in Warsaw.
He uses simple materials, such as paper and cardboard, to build models of objects and ideas. His works, albeit modest and inconspicuous, accord new meanings and qualities to things and the space around them. He collaborates with the Raster Gallery (Galeria Raster).
 
Aneta Grzeszykowska
Born 1974. Based in Warsaw.
Her scope includes photography, video and objects. She takes advantage of the possibilities offered by digital photography and film making to examine the nature of identity; she is interested in how ambivalent the states of presence and absence, existence and disappearance, are. She collaborates with the Raster Gallery (Galeria Raster).
 
Norman Leto
Born 1980. Based in Warsaw.
He creates films and 3D spaces; he is also a writer. Leto constructs animated narratives that draw upon the material reality and the author’s own experiences that blend together his scientific knowledge and literary disposition. He collaborates with the Kolonie Gallery (Galeria Kolonie).
 
Anna Molska
Born 1983. Based in Warsaw.
Molska is a video artist. She maneuvers between tracing down the elements of modernist heritage and expressing individual experiences in a restrained manner, thus intertwining art and life in her works. She collaborates with the Foksal Gallery Foundation (Fundacja Galerii Foksal).
 
Franciszek Orłowski
Born 1984. Based in Poznań.
His scope involves installations and site-specific projects. In his works Orłowski juxtaposes various fragments of reality, triggering the processes that make them permeate one another. He is interested in existential themes, which he places in social context.
 
Katarzyna Przezwańska
Born 1984. Based in Warsaw.
Her scope involves spatial objects and interventions in urban space. Her activities resemble a creative dialogue with architecture, modernist architecture in particular; they entail courageous and unrestrained application of colour, which the artist restores to its rightful place. She collaborates with the Kolonie Gallery (Galeria Kolonie).
 
Mateusz Sadowski
Born 1984. Based in Poznań.
His scope includes videos, photography and installations. Sadowski’s works encompass everyday forms, which, once they emerge from the chaos of reality, instantly become augmented and begin to acquire abstract and poetic significance. He collaborates with the Stereo Gallery (Galeria Stereo).
 
Konrad Smoleński
Born 1977. Based in Warsaw.
His scope involves videos, photography and audio-performance. His works operate frequently between the potential inherent in the energy charge and the physical limitations of the surroundings. This is how Smoleński disrupts people’s cognitive habits, dealing blows thanks to which his audience may take to viewing some aspects of the reality differently. He collaborates with the LETO Gallery (Galeria LETO).
 
Iza Tarasewicz
Born 1981. Based in Białystok.
Her scope includes sculpture, performance and drawing. She focuses on these areas of existence that are linked to establishing the intimate private space and constructing identity, as well as to building and protecting physical autonomy and integrity. She collaborates with Stereo Gallery (Galeria Stereo).

Realized from the funds of Minister of Culture and National Heritage
Media patronage: O.pl Polski Portal Kultury