Untitled, 2017 „(…) they stood on the seashore wishing to walk through
it and they had only a spoon to drain it (...)“* Bertolt Brecht (translation
by Julita Marmol and Iwona Rozbiewska). Installation approx. 200x150x220cm, Warsaw. Exhibition at the Kulturverein Modern Studio Freising, DE, 2018.In one of his poems Bertolt Brecht wrote: “(…) they stood on the seashore wishing to walk through it and they had only a spoon to drain it (...)“.*
I came across this quote three years ago and the absurdity of the situations described in the poem inspired me to do further artistic research. I studied and spent time on creative work in Germany. A one and half year ago, having lost two closest people and gone through remarkable changes in my personal life, I returned to Poland. I closed one chapter in my life and opened another one. This is a kind of a spiral which has already showed up in my works.
Referring to the above-mentioned quote… Spoon - a surreal, abstract element, so to say. This minimalistic, simplified form of a spoon, perfectly cut in metal and welded, stands in contrast to the bricks. The process of bricks creation was a very important activity for me. I visited a brickyard in the area and conducted research. I prepared a form for brick manufacture. Portions of clay mass inserted into the form, returned finely shaped clay blocks. The bricks are completely hand-made and represent a significant step in the beginnings of civilisation. There are no two identical bricks. Hand-made bricks are like a shadow of human individuality. They differ even in that they occupied different spaces in the brick kiln. In my installation they are the building material built by me.
*an excerpt from Bertolt Brecht’s poem Exil