In 2009, Kuba Bąkowski took part in a scientific expedition to Spitsbergen. He brought with him a ritual polar bear costume used in ceremonies in a village in Silesia – a relic of ancient beliefs in which the bear protected and united the community. The result of the expedition is a photograph depicting a human-bear figure holding a signal lamp, its light appearing where the North Star – hidden during the polar day – would be.
As is typical of Bąkowski’s work, the piece combines elements of photography and performance, while also treating travel as an artistic medium in a metaphorical sense. The animal-human hybrid figure, viewed through a posthumanist lens, invites reflection on alternative ways of relating between humans and non-human beings. The work balances between documentation and myth, creating a story about encountering what is other – natural, spiritual, primal – and the need to acknowledge its presence in our world.