The Energy Show

How much energy do we have and need today? This question opens The Energy Show – Sun, Solar and Human Power, an exhibition that can be seen from 3 September 2022 through 5 March 2023 at Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam. The exhibition, put together by curator and designer Matylda Krzykowski and in collaboration with The Solar Biennale, revolves around the sun and its design possibilities. It reflects on visitors’ personal energy levels, features dozens of examples of innovative solar technology, and poses the key question: what would the world look like if it ran on solar energy? Posters is also the part of the exhibition and presents the eruptions of energy on the sun.

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Tracts

Visual identity, website, prints, publication

This is a bTRACTS stands for ‘Trace as a research agenda for climate change, technology studies, and social justice‘. TRACTS is a COST Action (2021–2025) that brings together scholars from disciplines of the social sciences and humanities with artists, decolonial activists, memorialization experts and legal professionals to bridge current cultural, political and geographical gaps in research on traces.lock of text. Double-click this text to edit it.

Ophelias. Iconography of Madness, Zorka Wollny

“Wollny’s Ophelias. Iconography of Madness, which is a performance and theater piece at the same time, features twelve professional actresses who play Ophelia, one after another. The actresses, who come from different theater traditions and generations, all played Ophelia according to their divergent training, knowledge, skills, and so on. The procession of Ophelias was stunning—the audience entered the world of deception, sorrow, and madness caused by the system of patriarchal rule. Some performed the character as a woman completely alienated from reality, while others seemed perfectly “normal.” Any woman would feel that they might also fall, that in the given condition (of Shakespeare’s Hamlet), they would not survive. The eternal feminine that opened before our eyes did not consist in the perpetuation of women’s beauty or seductive capacities, as in the stereotypical fetish of femininity; it became a feminist Howl of the female personae non grata in the male-dominated world. In my text accompanying the project’s online release, I claimed that these Ophelias performed a structural transformation of the public sphere.”

Ewa Majewska E-Flux Journal #92 (2018)

performance for eleven actresses, 50min Muzeum Sztuki, Lodz 2012, Contemporary Museum Wroclaw 2013, International Schakespear Festival Gdansk 2013 performed by: Iwona Bielska, Monika Dąbrowska, Ewa Domańska, Gabriela Frycz, Anna Ilczuk, Elżbieta Karkoszka, Krystyna Łubieńska, Marta Kalmus-Jankowska, Katarzyna Misiewicz, Karolina Porcari, Agnieszka Radzikowska, Małgorzata Rudzka, Bożena Stryjkówna photos by Adam T. Burton movies by: Małgorzata Mazur

In one place, at the same time eleven Ophelias met, eleven ways of experiencing and playing the role, eleven actor performances. In the empty space of Muzeum Sztuki eleven actresses who have played the role of Ophelia in theatre productions of Shakespeare’s Hamlet performed the final scene of madness.

The oldest performer was 80 years old (played Ophelie in 1960), the youngest is still playing in the adaptation from this year. The joint appearance of the actresses, arranged by Zorka Wollny, was a performance in which different interpretations of the classic dramatic role created an image of female madness.

Centrala Website

CENTRALA (Małgorzata Kuciewicz and Simone De Iacobis) is a Warsaw-based architecture and research studio that works with reinterpretations and spatial interventions aimed at renewing the language of architecture. In their architecture research practice, they observe the relations between architecture and natural phenomena. They conceive architecture as a process rather than a static form, and consider gravity, water circulation, and atmospheric and astronomical events as its building materials. In architecture that combines an intimate, human scale with the scale of the planet, they see a tool that can help us tune in to the rhythm of the surrounding world.

140 Beats per minute

The title is a reference to the number of beats per minute in classic techno music. Jacek Sienkiewicz, a pioneer of techno in Poland, whose works are presented in the exhibition, played in this tempo in the 90s. The word “rave” is used to describe dance parties with electronic music—mainly techno—that began to appear in Poland together with the political system change in the early 90s, often voicing the naive, but nonetheless authentic optimism of opening up to the world, its civilizational and technological advancement.

Not Fair

The first international edition of NOT FAIR, 22–25 September 2016, will be held in Warsaw’s most spectacular building—the Palace of Culture and Science. Invited galleries and project spaces will each propose a solo project by one of their collaborating artists. When developing show concepts, artists and galleries should consider the special character of the place where their works will be displayed—namely, the eclectic and monumental architecture of the Palace of Culture and Science. NOT FAIR is aiming to deal with the given space and to compose a display of solo projects in the form of a group exhibition.

The second international edition of NOT FAIR, 21 – 24 September 2017, will be held in Warsaw in it’s most spectacular building – the Palace of Culture and Science.

The idea of NOT FAIR is to create a platform of exchange and cooperation between international galleries, collectors, curators and other participants active on the contemporary art scene. Each invited gallery is asked to propose a solo presentation by one artist and should take into account the character of the place where works will be displayed—namely, the eclectic and monumental architecture of the Palace of Culture and Science. There will be no traditional gallery stands because the idea is to compose the whole display in form of group exhibition or salon d’art.

NOT FAIR will be held concurrently with Warsaw Gallery Weekend 2017, in which around 20–30 galleries will take part. Visitors will also have a chance to participate in a variety of ongoing events organised by the most important institutions and private collections.

Summer Camp

The leitmotiv of the “summer camp” is the concept of “identification” Identification is one of the mechanisms of socialization, based on the acceptance or permanent internalization of the values, norms, and behaviour patterns of other individuals or social groups. It plays a fundamental role in the development of personality, morality, and individual identity.

Participants of the Academy practiced, explored the city, discussed, conducted research, and learned from one another. We started with the concept of “identification” and the need for a sense of identity. Do we have such a need in today’s cosmopolitan times? And if so, what for? Does identification broaden or narrow our horizons? Does it help us grow or does it limit us and smother our selfhood? How does individual identification as the creation of oneself shape our future? Can we simultaneously be ourselves while identifying with someone/a group or a phenomenon? Identification with the place/city we live in and function is a defence against exclusion, an attempt to assimilate and to develop social skills. It fulfills the need to belong to a group, a collective. At the same time, it can be oppressive, excluding, and enforce adaptation to new conditions. It can be used to establish someone’s identity, to recognize someone or something on the basis of some features. The combination of two words: Identity vs Identification, makes the issue even more intense. While identity is who you are, differentiating an individual from others of the same kind, selfhood or identification is the act of identifying with something, opting to be the same.