The “Open Circle – Carrot” exhibition, which opened on 12 July at the Długa Gallery, is the first exhibition organised in cooperation with Pies Gallery in Poznań. “The very idea of organising an exhibition in Bolesławiec seemed interesting to me because it is a city outside the centre of artistic life in Poland,” Dawid Radziszewski, owner of the Poznań gallery, told IstotneInformacje.pl Dawid Radziszewski,
“For the Długa Gallery, this is a new experience,” says Radosław Gajewski, the exhibition curator. Magdalena Starska’s installation was created in real time. During the opening, the Poznań artist was polishing the work she had been making in Bolesławiec for a week. “The sculpture was created in this interior; it corresponds with this interior,” Gajewski points out.
The opening was combined with a performance. Visitors could actively participate in the exhibition opening by crumpling old newspapers. The artist’s conceptual sketches were placed on the walls. A carrot-based refreshment was also prepared. Not by accident. The carrot was the leitmotif of the exhibition. “The carrot motif appears in all the elements of the exhibition,” Radziszewski emphasises.Radziszewski.
The artist herself wrote about her project: “Symbolically, carrot slices are circles, and in a person eating a carrot, awareness of its pieces fades away. The same situation can be applied, for example, to people dancing in a circle and becoming one. Everything keeps going around in circles, and this can be felt in one’s own life. If we delve into these circles without fear, it will turn out that they become a tunnel, a secret code for horizontal movement—and who knows, perhaps even vertical movement.”
The work can be interpreted in various ways. In a conversation with IstotneInformacje.pl, Magdalena Starska said: “It is a work that I do not control—it is not closed within its form. I make such things to stir the viewer, to make them more sensitive.” Nevertheless, the artist also values traditional art. “Classical painting is wonderful,” she admits. “No art is boring if it is created by someone who feels what they are doing,” she adds.
The exhibition can be viewed until 28 July.
(GA information)