The structures were created in response to the need to find enclaves and spaces that challenge the traditional way of being in space. Their simple designs provide a kind of DIY manual: they show us how we can build our own alternative space. They are the prototypes of objects that allow us to travel and spend time / be in nature and combine both public and private spaces. They utilise wooden domes, hand-sewn tents, and forms inspired by vernacular and nomadic architecture. It is important to design them during the construction process, using readily available materials and acting without prior assumptions or a specific plan, so the forms do not become determined by a need for control. The open space within these objects is intended to stimulate imagination; its boundaries, assumptions, and functions are undefined, and the viewers are left to determine the rules for how to use them. 

The structures are constructed from found, recyclable objects such as those found in the museum’s warehouses: leftovers from previous exhibitions or reusable materials. (For example, prototypes of palm leaves left over from Joanna Rajkowska’s Greetings from Jerusalem Avenue project).

Spending time in these structures allows us look at reality in a different way. The artist recognises the need for the existence of such enclaves within the urban environment: semi-isolated spaces where collaborative activities can take place and experiences can be shared. Krześlak’s objects can be understood as artistic ferment in urban space, an attempt to escape the terrain of surveillance and invigilation.

In 2012 Byung-Chul Han wrote a fascinating essay entitled The Transparency Society:

Nowadays, parks are designed to make it almost completely impossible to disappear or conceal yourself in them. Public space should be neutral, open and transparent. Everything and everyone should be visible and readable so that the total surveillance of actions and behaviours can be guaranteed. “But,” Han wonders, “is freedom of action not fostered by trust, and isn’t trust only possible in a state of knowing and not-knowing? Trust implies building a positive relationship with the other despite the not-knowing. Where transparency prevails, no room for trust exists. One should not say: ‘transparency creates trust,’ but: ‘transparency dismantles trust,’ The demand for transparency grows louder precisely when trust no longer prevails.”

Marta Krześlak

 

(b. 1994) – artist, graduate of the multimedia studio at the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź (2018). She also studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and Ensba Lyon. Currently a PhD student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. Her interests revolve around dreams, memories, and remembered or imagined landscapes. Using found objects, she constructs narratives in which she analyses the nature of human behavior and its interactions with space. Her works have been exhibited at many solo (Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Arts, Gdańsk City Gallery, Industra Art Brno) and collective exhibitions (Art Museum in Łódź, MOCA in Hiroshima). Winner of Młode Wilki Festival, the Grey House Foundation Award, and the Best Diploma Competition in Gdańsk. She lives and works in Grabina near Łódź and in Brussels.