Songs of Excess/group show/Günter Grass Gallery in Gdańsk/2024

 

fot. A. Żemojdzin

The source and symbolic beginning of the exhibition and its title are to be traced to the works of Anna Świrszczyńska (1909-1984) – a poet, journalist, playwright and prose writer. The poet believed in “change for the better” and liked to stand on her head in an attempt at giving expression to her “female rebellion.” She longed to be united with plants, animals, elements, and her own femininity. Świrszczyńska’s poems are records of the feelings of overflow and surplus – “songs of excess.” They speak of pushing boundaries, of experiencing the self as the lightest of beings while at once gigantic and uncountable. She wrote: “I ooze, I spread, I fan out, I am explosion, I gush, I jump out of my skin, I mushroom.” The excess thus communicated suggests indeterminacy and complexity that, although ungraspable, can be shared at will.

Magdalena Franczak, The Economy of Uselessness, three works from 2021-2024

 Soft bedding melted with snow in its potential shapelessness. Drowsy unsought landscapes were strewn across tables. Rather like mountain ranges one you slump into, immerse yourself in, in which you can leave an imprint of your head, arm, knees. One can give it a spin with your hand, reshape it. Shapelessness has the potential for freedom and change. It is nothing, so it can be anything. We can project our thoughts onto it, hold unspoken dialogues in it. We can hide in its shadowy folds what needs to wait, but should not get lost. The fold is warm and soft. The inside of an eiderdown carries a memory of a bird’s journey a long time ago. We take a look beyond the horizon of a homescape put on sale. The table brings hope for dialogue. Something falls down to the floor, something is hidden beneath it. Something melts and changes its state. Someone might come at any moment and leave the traces of their shoes in the snow. If they linger a bit, moving their feet, another shapelessness will emerge.

 

 

Titles of the works:

1. The Economy of Uselessness, collage, pigment print, 2024

2. Posthuman Landscapes, pigment print, 2022

3. Ruins of Unwanted Memories, ceramics, wood, 2021-2022

 

text: Magdalena Franczak