WE HAVE TIME
The exhibition We Have Time is hosted by the andel’s Hotel Łódź and Warimpex Finanz- und Beteiligungs AG, as a part of the project ANDEL’S QUARTER.
Artists: Karolina Breguła, Monika Drożyńska, Rafał Milach, Joanna Piotrowska
Curator: Katarzyna Sagatowska
Opening: Thursday, September 10th, 2015, from 7 PM
Exhibition: 11.09-10.10.2015
andel’s Hotel Łódź
ul. Ogrodowa 17
The show is accompanied by an album designed by Ania Nałęcka, which, alongside the works from the show, features a short story by Filip Zawada Ravens Live the Longest.
Katarzyna Sagatowska, curator of the exhibition:
Arrival and departure, the beginning and the end. Time is experienced in a particular way when you’re staying at a hotel. Viewed from this perspective, the andel’s Hotel is a unique place, for the past here is always visible in the present. The structure and elements of the former Izrael Poznański’s factory have determined the hotel’s present form and influenced its future development. The exhibition We Have Time is a reflection on the meaning of time. The works presented here relate to this concept in various ways. It’s also possible to find in each of them the „threads” that link them with the exhibition site – the hotel, or the city of Łódź. The show consists of two parts: the public – displayed in the lobby, and the private – presented in the hotel’s suites.
Public space:
In Karolina Breguła’s series of photographs Histories of Art time has no beginning and no end – it flows erratically, unexpectedly returning, unwinding in loops. The artist refers to works that mark out points on the twentieth century art history’s timeline, like Joseph Beuys’ Fettecke, Maurizio Cattelan’s The Ninth Hour, or Spatial Composition 4 by Katarzyna Kobro. According to Breguła, instead of remaining at the more and more remote pages of art history textbooks, these points relocate, manifesting themselves in the present-day as absurd and disturbing eruptions on the everyday reality of ordinary people.
While working on the series Very Beautiful Project Rafał Milach was inspired by his trip to places such as Łódź and Upper Silesia – post-industrial areas typically associated with brutal transformation and visual austerity. What Milach gives the visited places is the opportunity for self-promotion – showcasing their beauty and achievements through the presentation of the winners of local competitions. Ania Sztuba – the champion of dancing with fire, Dynami Mouse Golden Autumn – the most beautiful mouse, and Iso – the most beautiful dog of the Łódź Pet Fair 2007, or Professor Jan Ślężyński, a handstand champion who at age 80 did 201 stands in 27 minutes. Each of the protagonists has found her time. Every one of them is the best.
Private space:
Half of a Whole by Monika Drożyńska is a personal story about the beginning and development, about the changeability and invariability of an image as a function of time. It’s a self-portrait-in-the-process that consists of reproductions of the same photograph, which was printed on fabric and then unraveled by the artist in tens of ways that differ from one another. A piece from the Urban Embroidery 3 series is, in turn, a site-specific installation on one of the hotel’s curtains, created in the hand embroidery technique. Needlework is for the artist a form of political action, and it will be the case this time, too. Drożyńska will present her own personal reflection on the history of Poznański’s factory.
Joanna Piotrowska examines the complexity of human relationships, especially within the family. In a series of black-and-white photographs the artist evokes the past through the reconstruction of pictures from family albums. Duplicated positions of bodies and gestures are ambiguous. A handshake can be perceived as both supportive and oppressive. The pictures are static. The presented figures are inanimate, time has stood still. The title of the series itself, Frowst, means warm but stuffy atmosphere. Closeness may lead to suffocation. How to get out? In another series Piotrowska re-enacts poses taken from self-defense techniques. We can see the struggle, but again – there’s no unambiguity here. It is not known who defends and who attacks. The atmosphere gets stifling again.
