Agata Szymanek. Poganka
od 18 stycznia do 3 lutego 2019
Rondo Sztuki
//english version below//
wernisaż: 18 stycznia 2019, godz. 18:00
kurator wystawy: Aleksander Celusta
“I czyńcie ziemię sobie poddaną” rzekł do nich Bóg. No więc uczynili… Od dwóch stuleci ludzie wywierają tak przemożny wpływ na stan Ziemi, iż według słynnego holenderskiego meteorologa Paula J. Crutzena czas najwyższy zamknąć obecną epokę geologiczną i ogłosić nastanie antropocenu.
Słoneczny dzień leniwie trwał
Pito herbatę u nas w ogrodzie
W leżaku pies wygodnie spał
Żyjemy w nowym wspaniałym świecie. Jego symboliczną cezurą jest gruba warstwa betonu i wszędobylski plastik. Człowiek uruchomił wielkie wymieranie gatunków żyjących na planecie Ziemia. 7,6 mld ludzi stanowi jedynie 0,01% wszystkich żywych stworzeń, jednak od czasów rozwoju cywilizacji przyczynili się oni do zniszczenia 83% wszystkich dzikich ssaków i połowy roślin. To właśnie bioróżnorodność jest jedną z granic bezpieczeństwa a jej zanikanie narusza całą konstrukcje.
Koniec świata w siedem chwil
Nie dowiemy się, kto wygrał
Na pewno nikt
Agata Szymanek maluje futra, pancerze insektów, skorupy, włosy, pióra, skały oraz korę drzew; zwierzęce ciało na jej obrazach jest śliskie, smukłe i mokre. Kreowane sytuacje kryją w sobie coś erotycznego. Sposób malowania jest bardzo intuicyjny i działa na zasadzie eksperymentu. Jak sama przyznaje czasami ważny jest gest, czasami precyzyjne odtworzenie projektu i właściwy dobór kolorów. Wszystkie wykorzystane przez artystkę wizerunki zostały przedstawione w sposób schematyczny. Sztywna forma buduje sytuację sprzeczną niż ta zaistniała w ich naturalnym środowisku. Natura jest wyrazem zarówno romantycznego zachwytu jak i strachu budowanego powstałą sprzecznością.
Być może życie jeszcze gdzieś jest
Wspaniały człowiek w bezpiecznym domu
Przez swój teleskop śledzi nasz kres
Wizja ludzkości przegrywającej ze skutkami antropocenu spełnia się na wystawie kilkukrotnie. Na obrazach pojawiają się fragmenty zrujnowanej architektury, cywilizacja pogrążona jest w chaosie a jej dawni mieszkańcy wyruszają w poszukiwaniu nowego lepszego świata.
Tekst: Aleksander Celusta (kurator wystawy)
cytat: Bogdan Olewicz „Nagle wszystko się skończyło”. Polska wersja piosenki „We Don't Need Another Hero” Tiny Turner
AGATA SZYMANEK (ur. 1990) jest doktorantką środowiskowych studiów doktoranckich na ASP w Katowicach, zajmuje się malarstwem i pracą w technice kolażu. Obroniła dyplom z wyróżnieniem w 2014 roku na tej samej uczelni. Brała udział w wystawach w Polsce i za granicą. Najważniejsze z nich to 9 Triennale Grafiki Polskiej, wystawa na festiwalu DUMBO arts, organizowana przez konsulat RP w Nowym Jorku oraz wystawa Najlepsze Dyplomy ASP, która odbyła się w Wielkiej Zbrojowni ASP w Gdańsku. W 2016 r. Została zakwalifikowana do 12 Konkursu Gepperta, gdzie otrzymała nagrodę Anonimowego Fundatora.
18 January – 3 February 2019
Opening: 18 January 2019, 6.00 p.m.
Agata Szymanek. A Heathen Woman.
“And God said unto them: ‘fill the earth and subdue it’”. And so they did. For the past two centuries people have been exerting such influence over the Earth that, according to Paul J. Crutzen, a renown Dutch meteorologist, it is now time to declare an end of the current geological era and announce the onset of the Anthropocene.
It was mid-May, the trees were in blossom
The sunny day lazily dragged on,
People drank tea in our garden,
The dog on the sunbed snugly slept on.
We live in the brave new world. Its boundaries are symbolically demarcated by a thick layer of concrete and the ubiquitous plastic. People have triggered the great extinction of the species populating the planet Earth. 7.6 billion people account only for some 0.01% of all living creatures, but since the dawn of civilization people have contributed to the extinction of about 83% of all mammals living in the wild and half of plants. It is biodiversity that is one of the safety limits and its disappearance violates the entire balance of the planet.
And suddenly everything was over,
The end of the world in seven instants,
We will never know who came out victorious,
No-one did, that is certain.
Agata Szymanek paints furs, exoskeletons of insects, shells, hair, feathers, rocks, and tree bark; the animal body in her paintings is slimy, slender and wet. The situations she creates bear traits of the erotic. Her manner of painting is intuitive and experimental in its nature. As she admits herself, sometimes a gesture is important, sometimes it is the precision in rendering the design and in the careful choice of its colours. All of the representations created by the artist have been executed in a schematic way. The rigid form generates a situation that is contradictory to the one present in the natural environment. Nature is simultaneously an expression of a romantic admiration and of the fear ensuing from the created contradiction.
Through a hole in the ground I am watching the stars,
Life, perhaps, is still somewhere out there,
A marvellous man, from a safe haven of his home,
Is musing our end through a telescope.
The vision of the mankind losing against the effects of the Anthropocene comes true on several occasions during the exhibition. The paintings show fragments of ruined structures, of a civilisation sliding into chaos whose former denizens set off in search of a better world.
Agata Szymanek (b. 1990) is a student of inter-faculty doctoral studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice. Her artistic interests concern painting and collage. In 2014 she defended with distinction her diploma work at the Katowice Academy. She took part in art exhibitions in Poland and abroad, the most important of which were the 9th Polish Print Triennial, the DUMBO arts festival exhibition organised by the Consulate of the Republic of Poland in New York, the Best AFA (Academy of Fine Arts) Diploma Work exhibition which was held in the Grand Armoury in Gdańsk. In 2016 she was qualified to the 12th Geppert Competition, where she was awarded the Anonymous Founder Prize.
Opening: 18 January 2019, 6.00 p.m.
Agata Szymanek. A Heathen Woman.
“And God said unto them: ‘fill the earth and subdue it’”. And so they did. For the past two centuries people have been exerting such influence over the Earth that, according to Paul J. Crutzen, a renown Dutch meteorologist, it is now time to declare an end of the current geological era and announce the onset of the Anthropocene.
It was mid-May, the trees were in blossom
The sunny day lazily dragged on,
People drank tea in our garden,
The dog on the sunbed snugly slept on.
We live in the brave new world. Its boundaries are symbolically demarcated by a thick layer of concrete and the ubiquitous plastic. People have triggered the great extinction of the species populating the planet Earth. 7.6 billion people account only for some 0.01% of all living creatures, but since the dawn of civilization people have contributed to the extinction of about 83% of all mammals living in the wild and half of plants. It is biodiversity that is one of the safety limits and its disappearance violates the entire balance of the planet.
And suddenly everything was over,
The end of the world in seven instants,
We will never know who came out victorious,
No-one did, that is certain.
Agata Szymanek paints furs, exoskeletons of insects, shells, hair, feathers, rocks, and tree bark; the animal body in her paintings is slimy, slender and wet. The situations she creates bear traits of the erotic. Her manner of painting is intuitive and experimental in its nature. As she admits herself, sometimes a gesture is important, sometimes it is the precision in rendering the design and in the careful choice of its colours. All of the representations created by the artist have been executed in a schematic way. The rigid form generates a situation that is contradictory to the one present in the natural environment. Nature is simultaneously an expression of a romantic admiration and of the fear ensuing from the created contradiction.
Through a hole in the ground I am watching the stars,
Life, perhaps, is still somewhere out there,
A marvellous man, from a safe haven of his home,
Is musing our end through a telescope.
The vision of the mankind losing against the effects of the Anthropocene comes true on several occasions during the exhibition. The paintings show fragments of ruined structures, of a civilisation sliding into chaos whose former denizens set off in search of a better world.
Agata Szymanek (b. 1990) is a student of inter-faculty doctoral studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice. Her artistic interests concern painting and collage. In 2014 she defended with distinction her diploma work at the Katowice Academy. She took part in art exhibitions in Poland and abroad, the most important of which were the 9th Polish Print Triennial, the DUMBO arts festival exhibition organised by the Consulate of the Republic of Poland in New York, the Best AFA (Academy of Fine Arts) Diploma Work exhibition which was held in the Grand Armoury in Gdańsk. In 2016 she was qualified to the 12th Geppert Competition, where she was awarded the Anonymous Founder Prize.