The Work of Hands
Hanna Hur, Joanna Piotrowska, Unica Zürn

7.09–21.09.2024

Until not long ago, most of my work involved moving. Now that we’re trying to make the gallery more resemble those abroad, my actions boil down to small movements of the fingers, which I tap on a keyboard in a sitting position. If I didn’t have to drink coffee and if we had better chairs in the gallery I could sit many hours this way.

In the past, this kind of work with only the slightest of movements would have been reserved for the most precise artisans, intellectuals, and artists (and only those who liked fine-tuning their work). Perhaps writers as well, though you really had to press hard on typewriter keys, which meant using one of them more recalled operating a miniature cotton mill than today’s writing. I could even be proud of all this were it not for the fact that everyone with a higher education currently works the same way. The arms spend most of the day idle and indifferent.

The worst part is that the same motionlessness fills my free time. Only individual fingers burn the calories, especially when I enlarge the screen, or the muscles attached to my eyeballs. It makes me feel rather sad, but who wouldn’t.

This exhibition will be presenting Joanna Piotrowska’s moving sculptures and the juxtaposed works of Unica Zürn and Hanna Hur.