Collection

Simple Traces is a large muslin fabric dyed using the shibori technique. Królikiewicz builds upon this traditional method by adding metal moulds and tools that – when wet – share their rust with the muslin. These rigid objects with strong, linear edges were taken from the dilapidating shipyard in Gdańsk – a space that embodies the memories of labour, political

events and economic objectives. It is a kind of portrait in which the energy of departure spills over the last existing traces.

The Notebook is an artistic book complementing the dyed fabric, showing the process of creating the work and revealing its conceptual and material history.

Simple Traces together with the accompanying notebook is a work full of internal contradictions. It was given its form by angular objects, and yet it is soft. It fits in a small box, and yet, when unfolded, it can fill an entire room. The work is abstract, and yet can be treated as a portrait. When hung up, like a map of mysterious, never visited territories, it surprises its viewer with its organic forms. 

Simple Traces is a large muslin fabric dyed using the shibori technique. Królikiewicz builds upon this traditional method by adding metal moulds and tools that – when wet – share their rust with the muslin. These rigid objects with strong, linear edges were taken from the dilapidating shipyard in Gdańsk – a space that embodies the memories of labour, political

events and economic objectives. It is a kind of portrait in which the energy of departure spills over the last existing traces.

The Notebook is an artistic book complementing the dyed fabric, showing the process of creating the work and revealing its conceptual and material history.

Simple Traces together with the accompanying notebook is a work full of internal contradictions. It was given its form by angular objects, and yet it is soft. It fits in a small box, and yet, when unfolded, it can fill an entire room. The work is abstract, and yet can be treated as a portrait. When hung up, like a map of mysterious, never visited territories, it surprises its viewer with its organic forms. 

Feminist painting is born from the sweeping movements of the broom, everyday ordinariness, in the space of an empty studio. In this conceptual photography, there is a large dose of staging and stage-like performance. Because the camera was placed below eyesight, we – the viewers looking at the photographs – get the impression of sitting in the front row, right next to the author, as if she was creating her abstract composition just for us. This perspective also evokes the point of view of a small child, and perhaps the artist's son, who appears here for the first time, on the other side of the camera, observing his mother-artist at work.

Malarstwo feministyczne is one of Kutera’s early works, in which the question of the relationship between art and life comes to the fore as an indication of themes appearing in subsequent series, such as Sytuacje stymulowane [Stimulated Situations] (1975-1989) that explore the role and impact of coincidence, circumstances, and staged and real events for the social reception of art.

The view is more beautiful from above is a recording of a performance realized in real time. Martin balances on the edge, the borderline state between life and death, and subjects the viewer to the torture of fearing for her life. The piece was created while Martin reflected on theories of being. The artist rejects the idea of a world order based on an organized system – for example a religious system, which she sees as obsolete and empty – in favour of developing her own world view – a closer consideration of nature and its rules, questioning the primacy of man and testing to what extent she is the agent of her own fate.

Balconies is a recording of a performance created among high-rise residential buildings in various parts of Gdańsk. The artist has personal connections with these places; they define her identity and conjure up strong emotions. The artist’s gesture of risking her life is like hiding from the family that has remained behind closed doors, a form of a definitive solution. She resembles the falling Icarus in a painting attributed to Pieter Brueghel, disappearing unnoticed among the chaos of everyday life.

The social and political moods of the second half of the 1980s were a point of reference and inspiration for attempts to establish and find one’s place within the existing reality. The activities of Totart provided a sharp commentary on the atmosphere in the Polish People’s Republic at the time. Happenings in uniform constituted, according to their authors, a kind of mockery of the strategies promoted by the authorities, which aimed at unifying and uniforming all public services, such as the militia, fire brigades or forest guards.

The group’s activities were usually collective in nature, as evidenced by sztrajfy – the painted fabrics, collectively prepared by Totart members, often spontaneously during public performances.

The social and political moods of the second half of the 1980s were a point of reference and inspiration for attempts to establish and find one’s place within the existing reality. The activities of Totart provided a sharp commentary on the atmosphere in the Polish People’s Republic at the time. Happenings in uniform constituted, according to their authors, a kind of mockery of the strategies promoted by the authorities, which aimed at unifying and uniforming all public services, such as the militia, fire brigades or forest guards.

The group’s activities were usually collective in nature, as evidenced by sztrajfy – the painted fabrics, collectively prepared by Totart members, often spontaneously during public performances.

 Pure Sure was published during the time of the Polish transformation (1989–1990), which resulted in the development of significant tools of expression and a portrayal of a mood of absurdity and distance. Having observed the socio-political changes taking place, Mazur created a surreal

comic book magazine, employing distortion and symbolism. The socio-political atmosphere and everyday difficulties inspired Mazur, who did not agree with living ’under the Soviet boot’, unable to live a normal life. His political commitment, expressed both visually and poetically, in music and

performance, as well as through his individual and Totart Formation’s work, is an often-perverse commentary on life in the reality at the time.

Strike is a series documenting the protests that erupted in Poland on 22 October 2020, following a Constitutional Tribunal ruling that restricted abortion rights. The demonstrations took place in hundreds of locations across the country and abroad. Rafał Milach’s project, part of the Archive of Public Protests, is a visual record of social mobilization and political self-organization. The Archive collects visual evidence of grassroots opposition to political decisions, violations of democracy, and human rights, while also serving as a warning against rising populism, discrimination, and the climate crisis.

Maciej Moskwa’s work, Hasun, is a poignant photograph of a 12-year-old refugee, taken in November 2014. The photo is part of Moskwa’s photojournalistic report documenting the consequences of the brutal attacks by the Islamic State on Kobane, during which over 300,000 people were forced to flee to nearby Turkey. Although nearly 3,500 Kurds found temporary shelter there, they were not granted refugee status, which deepened their marginalization and exclusion. The boy gazes at the viewer through the fence of a refugee camp in Suruç, Turkey.

The lack of access to basic needs, such as education, warm meals, or running water, highlights the dire living conditions in the camp. The intense gaze of the young boy becomes a tool for telling the story of those who have been pushed to the margins of global politics, deprived of a voice and visibility. Hasun himself grows into a symbolic figure – representing the encirclement and isolation that many victims of humanitarian crises face.