And if darkness is more than blackness, what else could it be / group exhibition / Centre for Creative Activities / Ustka-Slupsk / 2020
Artists: Lena Achtelik / Martyna Borowiecka / Mateusz Hajdo / Kaja Redkie / Milena Soporowska / Łukasz Stokłosa
Curator: Marta Kudelska
Documentation: courtesy of BGSW (more photos HERE)
The exhibition “And if darkness is more than blackness, what else could it be?” is a record of phantom delusions of the past, and a register of whispers, illusions and hallucinations. The idea behind the show is an uncompleted spiritual session with a host of apparitions and spectres which come to life through the works of invited artists. A seance has always been conducted according to pre-established rules; its course meticulously planned, executed and controlled. Any contact with the “other side” is, by definition, extraordinary, but it can also get out of control and seriously distort the participants’ judgement of reality. Often perceived as little more than romantic and innocent games or attempts to spin nostalgic yarns about ghosts and spectres that might also send shivers down your spine, spiritual sessions in fact aim at stimulating discussion on the boundaries of imagination and perception of the past – areas currently undergoing a profound transformation.
The works of the artists invited to the exhibition – Lena Achtelik, Martyna Borowiecka, Mateusz Hajdo, Kaja Redkie, Milena Soporowska and Łukasz Stokłosa – reveal the remains of the late, half-dead, half-living tissue. Each artist performs the rite of passage in their own way, each of them conjures up spirits and tries to harness the darkness but combining the present with the fading past. Some of them visit dark, stuffy rooms with 19th century cabinets, trying to find any vestiges of sticky ectoplasm and reconstruct the process of its formation. They bring to light the remains and shreds found. As in a classic horror novel, that which is forgotten or hidden at the bottom of a dark trunk in the attic returns to haunt the living.
All of the invited artists perform lunatic and unconscious activities which are aimed to trigger the dark and uncontrollable side of our imagination. Darkness is associated primarily with shelter for all kinds of conspirators, charlatans, demons and wraiths. In this eerie realm, the human body appears as a symbol of fragility, vanity and transience. And the moment of entering this strange abyss is a silent consent to accept new and suspend old norms and truths. In this context, the exhibition “And if darkness is more than blackness, what else could it be?” lures visitors to take a perilous stroll through the dark areas of their own imagination. Here the visitor encounters that which is undefined and alien, and yet at the same time strangely familiar.
Related links:
2020 Marta Kudelska guided curatorial tour
2020 exhibition review | SZUM Magazine
2019 Domestic Violence project
2019 Domestic Violence | individual exhibition | FOPA Gallery | Żyrardów
2019 Domestic Violence | text for Rooms exhibition catalogue | Fotofestiwal - International Festival of Photography in Lodz [PL/ENG]
