The Walls Have Ears

Inside Job (Ula Lucińska, Michał Knychaus), Nomadic State (Karolina Mełnicka, Stachu Szumski)

Curated by Daria Grabowska

@ Trafostacja Sztuki w Szczecinie, Szczecin, Poland

September 26 — November 15, 2019

Photography: Tomasz Koszewnik

As creators of exhibition content – artists, coordinators and curators – we repeatedly face various installation botch-ups. Our minimalist works wobble on the carelessly put together cubes,  institutional criticism to date is taking its toll – you are not supposed to get pissed off, and rudely. Hence, we decided to follow the beaten path and the exhibition that would provide a polite commentary on the situation.


The artistic duos that were invited to collaborate on the show in  basement corridor, one of the most installation- spaces in the TRAFO building. The result is the space resembling a storage with seemingly forgotten works that appear to be waiting for someone to install them properly.


The storage nature of the exhibition is further emphasized by the intervention of Nomadic State. The aquariums with water animals, entered in the CITES register, pose a charming question about the level of empathy in the employees. The glass houses for smuggled animals feature somewhat peculiar creatures, including a white axolotl, whose colour is the result of a mutated male of the species that was trafficked to Paris in 1863, or an eartheater that is the first generation of wild parents.


The objects created by Inside Job, including crawling cockroaches, a portal and claws sticking out of the walls, are a visualization of a local horror story. The spirit of Henry haunting the employees, the security personnel in particular, is a remnant of an alleged corpse excavated during the works carried out while converting the building from the former transformer facility into a modern art center. The poltergeist apparently travels alone in the elevator. He is also an excuse for all missing pendrives, damaged paintings and irregular holes in the walls.


It would seem a job with a cultural institution is a dream come true for graduates of an art academy. Dreams of non-hierarchical and lack of corporate style of work evaporate with the first selfwritten complaint.


No wall suffered during the installation.

The Walls Have Ears, Inside Job (Ula Lucińska, Michał Knychaus) & Nomadic State (Karolina Mełnicka, Stachu Szumski), exhibition view, TRAFO, Szczecin, Poland; photos: Tomasz Koszewnik

The Walls Have Ears
Inside Job (Ula Lucińska, Michał Knychaus),
Nomadic State (Karolina Mełnicka, Stachu Szumski)

Curated by Daria Grabowska

 

At Trafostacja Sztuki w Szczecinie, Szczecin, Poland
26.09.2019 – 15.11.2019

Trafostacja Sztuki w Szczecinie

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