Mariusz Potyszka—a young amateur artist from Bolesławiec, a ceramic artist and participant in the 2020 Ceramic and Sculpture Symposium “Under the Masters’ Guidance”—came to my office in December 2020 with an extraordinary idea. He was the one who coined the phrase—a verbal commentary on his artistic vision:
"As many faces, as many different human lives. Each with its own story interwoven with joy and sadness. One thing that connects all these lives is passing time..."
A Moment of Eternity is his project, currently being carried out with the support and involvement of our institution. Its idea is to capture the brief moment in which we live and record it on a medium such as clay. This material will preserve for many years the memory of people, the residents of Bolesławiec, our neighbours and ourselves. I thought: what a fantastic idea of social and artistic expression. Although the name itself—A Moment of Eternity… surely that is illogical; eternity has nothing to do with a moment or an instant. On the other hand… this oxymoron seemed to me an interesting artistic device, because is this clay carpe diem not a gateway to eternity for the project participants, captured in dark faces with their eyes closed?
What can we expect?
“The aim of the project is to engage the local community in creating a large-format bas-relief. Each person taking part in the work will provide a cast of their face. The casts will be used to create clay sculptures—accurate portraits of these people. All the participants will be presented in one large, collective work. They will be residents of Bolesławiec who share a passion for clay and the city. The clay face casts will be fired in a kiln and mounted on a common base. The result will be a large bas-relief displayed in Bolesławiec next to the building of the International Ceramics Centre.”
That is what the artist says about the work.
Below, we present photographic impressions from the first stage of the project. Its finale will take place in June 2021.
I hope that a new bas-relief will soon appear in the urban landscape—an artistic vision of Bolesławiec residents heading towards eternity…
Kornel Filipowicz
