Patanowska Alicja: Of Mice and Men

Alicja Patanowska’s exhibition is a statement on contemporary chaotic consumption. Its title refers to the famous novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck which conveys a sad truth about the world – only the strongest will survive. Patanowska’s latest exhibition is not a traditional display of previous art works, but a theatrical presentation of topics related to the relationship between man and other living creatures. Patanowska is mainly associated with design and modern ceramics, her works can be found in the most prestigious art collections in the world. This exhibition gives a chance to see a different, more inner side of the young artist from Wrocław.

To create this exhibition, Alicja Patanowska has mainly used product waste resulting from human activity. One of the presented installations is made from the pieces of used porcelain retrieved from a glass factory and animal carcasses that had been subjected to taxidermy (victims of traffic, laboratory experiments or human carelessness). Carefully arranged still lives made up from various museum exhibits, remnants of food, fruit, skulls and other symbols of vanitas tend to raise a certain kind of admiration. However, neither the still lives nor the sculptures remain derived of ambiguity – on the one hand they fascinate with their craftsmanship and careful execution, but on the other hand they provide a bitter and frightening commentary on universal anthropocentric attitudes defining the conditions of modern economy which creates a historical narrative based merely on human perspective. The entire show is complemented by video works – symbolic images cut out from artist’s everyday life. Patanowska is inspired by a striking contrast between the metaphysical and the commonplace. Her choice of images may seem familiar to us, but those pictures get often hidden or lost in a rush ubiquitous overproduction. She spots them while looking out of the window or travelling through Polish countryside – says Joanna Kobyłt, the curator of the exhibition.

Patanowska finds her inspiration in the XIV and XVII century Dutch painting. The paintings of Hieronymus Bosch and Dutch masters delimit some important points for the narrative of the exhibition. The still lives – inspired by the idea of vanitas – do not refer here to the futility of human life, its fragility and transience, but rather to the impact that human beings make on earth. The artist is fascinated by the recurring theme of being on the road. Both the man on the painting created by Hieronymus Bosch and the character in the poem written by Jorg Schan – a wanderer and a nomadic vagabond, a real homo sacer of the modern world – could say: Nobody is my name, I bear everybody’s blame. In religion, a similar role is assigned to the figure of Lucifer, a proverbial devil precipitated from heaven to earth. Similar themes are also present in the film Lucifer by van den Berge which is crucial for understanding the idea of the exhibition. In the first scenes of the film Lucifer says: I am the path, I am destruction. Patanowska refers to this quote as she tries to draw attention to the aftermath of the Anthropocene, that is the current geological epoch dominated by human activities. Patanowska’s moralizing tone represents an artistic manner inspired by the tradition of the Dutch masters.

The artist treats waste as an ethical issue. She would like to take a look at the narrative built by man as a species by means of accordingly created and then interpreted science. In the nineteenth century, man was the culmination of the whole living world, other species were regarded as inferior. This view lingers on and allows us to maintain consumption and production chaos – says Alicja Patanowska. I have no doubt that animals have a moral status – she adds. It is a very personal statement which apparently differs from the artist’s previous activities related with design. According to Patanowska, design represents much more than just creation of beautiful and useful items. It is about thinking in terms of global social responsibility which should not be based only on the anthropocentric assumptions. Humanity is characterized by the so-called crown of creation, a kind of narcissism. Alicja Patanowska, known for her commitment to the needs of the audience, points it out by using symbolic mirrors – the anthropological artifacts associated with the Greek myth.

Special opening hours:
21-31 July: 12:00-22:00