FORBIDDEN!

The series of photos FORBIDDEN! was prepared over several years. While travelling Paweł Kowalewski took various photographs of different signs with orders and injunctions and on their basis made reproductions. They were presented for the first time at the 2. Mediations Biennale in Poznań in 2010. The main sign for the Biennale itself was one of the photos from the series, with the message “Europeans Only” printed on a large format banner.

 

This same photograph, reproduced with others of a similar theme, were produced on a series of post cards, which were available during Paweł Kowalewski’s performance activities during the Venice Biennale in 2011. The Artist visited tourist stalls and kiosks selling souvenirs and added his cards with multicultural directives to the typical tourist picture post card offer.

 

This project lends itself to multi-media. It functioned in outdoor form in 2010, in viral form in Venice and also as a series of light boxes which accompanied Paweł Kowalewski’s individual exhibition Totalitarianism Simulator in the Propaganda gallery in Warsaw. Here it was a commentary on the interactive powerful machine where the simulation deals with the issue of the totalitarian paradigm, which contrary to appearances in fact still shapes modern society.

 

The series was also exhibited at the Viennacontemporary, Austrian art fair in 2016.
Link: report from the fair in Vienna