ca. 2009
Azorro, Wojciech Bąkowski, Ewelina Chrzanowska, Jos de Gruyter & Harald Thys, Rafał Jakubowicz, Łukasz Jastrubczak, Tomasz Kowalski, Agnieszka Polska, Pimpek, Wilhelm Sasnal, Paweł Sysiak, Barbara Szelwach, Tobias Zielony
12.02–02.04.2022

There is a kind of past that isn’t quite history. We cannot nostalgically nestle down in it and pleasantly reminisce about it, because it is too close to the present, yet not identical to it.

It is filled with places and things that cause discomfort, like pants your heel steps on (when I look at the photos, at any rate, all the clothes strike me as uncomfortable), iPods, compact digital devices that take awful pictures, cold Poznań apartments with mattresses on the floor. What was the soundtrack?

It no longer matters. If they were people, the objects that fill this place would now be middle-aged. The television sets and kitchen appliances from 2009 are already ripe for replacement, though most of the things wouldn’t quite be called junk—they are neither old, nor new. The buildings erected at the time, with plaques that read “Co-financed by European Funds,” have lost their pleasant smell, although the warranties have all expired you still hang on to them, and so on.

It is not easy to capture the flavor of those times, some critical difference between then and now. It could be because the first decade of the twenty-first century has no identity as distinct as the 1990s or 1980s, but no doubt we still need more distance from it. At thirteen years old, the background still seems blurred. No matter how many times one says “do you remember this, or that,” trying to recall something quaint from those times, it turns out to have been from other years, people, and places.

At this exhibition we are presenting works from ca. 2009, some by artists who are quite well known, others less so. It’s a journey we are taking for no special reason.

For the first time, a dog will be taking part in one of our exhibitions.

Wojciech Bąkowski (b. 1979)
Love, 2009, 5’14’’

In an early phase of his work, Bąkowski portrayed the inner world of young inhabitants of large-panel building housing estates. The bashful anxieties of these films’ protagonists sometimes strike us as the shared experience of those who were teenagers in the 1990s.

Pimpek (b. 2010)
 Untitled, chewed shoes 

This work was created by actor Marta Ojrzyńska’s dog, whose first exhibition was held at the Goldex Poldex gallery. He displayed a series of expressive pieces—chewed-up objects from Marta’s apartment. Pimpek was not Krakow’s first dog-artist. Korek, a dog owned by Róża Janiszewska (one of the heads of Artpol Gallery), chewed out some original holes in blankets, thus creating “Korczans”—open-work fabrics to hang on the walls like tapestries.

Paweł Sysiak (b. 1984) 
Golden Painting, 2010, mixed technique 

This picture comes from Sysiak’s debut exhibition at the now-defunct Kolonie Gallery. During the course of this display, the artist changed the exhibition four times, making his debut a retrospective as well. This undoubtedly reflected his determination and the widespread optimism of the younger arts community. The picture itself, meant to be an ironic commentary on academicism, was created by reworking a piece that Sysiak made in his first year of studies, which explains the double dates of 2004 and 2010.

Wilhelm Sasnal (b. 1972)  
Horizon, 2009, oil on canvas 

A marvelous landscape painter, Sasnal is able to capture the immutable nature of the Polish countryside in condensed form.

Łukasz Jastrubczak (b. 1984)
Sleepwalk, slides, projector

During a stroll in Katowice’s Kościuszki Park, the artist shone a path for himself with the flash of his camera. In the carousel projector, the artist takes us on a trip into infinity.

Barbara Szelwach (b. 1964)  
Untitled, 2005, oil pastels on paper 

Barbara Szelwach’s series was once shown at Pies Gallery. The drawings’ protagonists are caught in the midst of a lively discussion. There is something artificial in the situation—it seems their limbs could be set in any configuration, and that none of them have truly uttered a word.

Jos de Gruyter (b. 1965) & Harald Thys (b. 1966)
Die Fregatte (The Frigate), 2008, 19’

This Belgian art duo inspired more than a few young Polish artists in their day. The protagonists of their unsettling film organize their actions around a model of a frigate, through which their mysterious transformation occurs.

Tobias Zielony (b. 1973)  
ZGORA photo series, 2007 

Zielony portrays the life of young people—places to meet in the evenings, relationships, killing time together. His protagonists seem so much a part of their background that one senses they will never leave their town, whether they were depicted in East Germany, Romania, or France. The series presented at the exhibition was taken in Poland; it is titled ZGORA. Here the artist brilliantly rendered the foggy atmosphere of Zielona Góra, a sleepy town in the middle of the forest where almost nothing ever happens to anybody.

Agnieszka Polska (b. 1985)
 Untitled, 2008, 6’33’’ 

An early, hypnotic work. Never before put on display.

Ewelina Chrzanowska (1984–2008)
 A series of drawings, 2007–8 

Chrzanowska mainly works in drawings. This exhibition will display only a small portion of the work she left behind. It concerns her personal life, her love, her work to earn a living in London, and her dreams of fulfillment at Turbin Hall. In 2018, this gallery presented an installation of hers—a hyper-realistic drawing that spanned nearly 30 m2, imitating the slats of a wooden floor.

Ewelina Chrzanowska (1984 - 2008)
seria prac rysunkowych, 2007-2008

Tomasz Kowalski (b. 1984)
 Untitled, 2011, oil on canvas

 A monumental picture about the effects of hiding in a tooth.

Rafał Jakubowicz, Miejsce, 2009
Plakat wystawy w CSW Zamek Ujazdowski, szkic techniczny, list

Wiesława Borowskiego do Wojciecha Krukowskiego W 2009 roku w warszawskim CSW planowana była wystawa Rafała Jakubowicza, pt. Miejsce (kuratorka: Ewa Mikina). Instalacja miała wyglądać jak przeskalowana do ogromnych rozmiarów drewniana skrzynka – identyczna jak te, w których pracownicy Galerii Foksal gromadzą archiwa współpracujących z galerią artystów (znajdowała się tam m.in. skrzynka Jakubowicza). Wskutek interwencji W. Borowskiego, który napisał list do W. Krukowskiego odnośnie swoich praw autorskich do projektu owych pudełek, nie dopuszczono do otwarcia wystawy. Na szkicu widać niezrealizowany projekt obiektu. Koszty jego produkcji oszacowano wówczas na 2300 zł, co przy dzisiejszych cenach sklejki wydaje się bardzo niską ceną.

Grupa Azorro (Oskar Dawicki, b. 1971; Igor Krenz, b. 1959; Wojciech Niedzielko, b. 1959; Łukasz Skąpski, b. 1958)
The Last Film, 2010, 5’44’’

Disputes staged before the camera about who comes up with all the ideas for the group. This theatrical debate shows the exhaustion of a long-running creative process and masks true conflicts in the group, which is actually falling apart.