Anti-monuments

 

Józef Brandts Palast, CRP in Orońsko

14.-22. November 2019

Curator: Jacek Sosnowski

The exhibition in cooperation with the Propaganda Gallery in Warsaw.

By design, monuments are created with a certain intention, to commemorate people, events and ideas. And what if they become in opposition? The “Anti-monuments” exhibition has collected works that can perfectly fulfill this function. They were created by using the monumental language, using it against themselves. Ultimately it is time that decides what becomes a monument and what is a useless piece, what takes on new meanings, and what irretrievably loses them. By erecting them, we only cultivate our delicious faith that something can remain permanently after us.

Artists: Piotr Flądro, Kijewski & Kocur, Jerzy Kosałka, Paweł Kowalewski, Laura Pawela, Mariusz Tarkawian, Ada Zielińska

 

Paweł Kowalewski, “Lenin as I Remember Him from My Childhood”, modeling clay, glass, books, 1980

A swashbuckling animal sitting on a pile of books is a visualization of fear of what these books represent. By the same token, Paweł Kowalewski shows how this kind of monument should really work. All Lenin’s works were never really intended for reading…