Ida Karkoszka – Let’s watch
Exhibition
October 27-November 23, 2023, Warsaw Marriott Hotel lobby and online: https://limitededition.pl/). Admission is free.
Organizers
Gallery of Contemporary Art Limited Edition (https://limitededition.pl/)
Warsaw Marriott Hotel(https://www.warsawmarriott.pl/)
Curator: Paweł Brylski
Photo: Igor Haloszka, Michał Szymel, Andrzej Skowron, Maciej Domagalski, Paweł Sudoł Video: Maciej Domagalski, Pawel Sudol
Partners: SMGP, Miscellaneous Things, Everest, Aerial Shots PawelSudol.com
Media patrons: Artinfo.pl, Art in Warsaw, Polish Masters of Art
Exhibition display
“When creating these sculptures, I was thinking about the interspecies relationship and the impact of our egocentric, short-sighted actions on our surroundings and the environment. I knew from the very beginning that they would be looking down on us – silent witnesses of the final judgment we are subjected to of our own will. “
~ Ida Karkoszka
Photo author Pawel Sudol
Curatorial statement
PAWEŁ BRYLSKI
Curator of the exhibition. Author of texts and creator of exhibitions, member of ZAiKS. He gained experience in the most important cultural and art institutions in Poland, including: at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw. "Let's watch" is his second exhibition carried out together with Ida Karkoszka.
The sculptures watch the world and track human footprints. The raven, the pig, and the rat have a broader view. They see the earth from a bird's eye view, from the surface of the ground, and nooks and crannies hidden in the depths. The silent presence of representatives of nature brings out the drama and melancholy of the environment. Animals look statuesque, but Ida Karkoszka sculpted them out of lightweight acrylic resin so that they can be placed on the roofs of buildings, waste heaps, or in the bed of a dried-up river. The exhibition at the Warsaw Marriott Hotel consists of sculptures, video works, and photographs that are records of a year-long journey of the artist and her sculptures through places marked by destructive human activity.
"Let's watch" is a postapocalyptic exhibition. Ruins, rubble, and deserted landscapes are a dark vision of the future. Photos on the verge of documentary and abstraction tell the story of human degeneration, abuse of the achievements of civilization, and mindless destruction of the planet, which may eventually lead to a staggered collective suicide of the species called "homo sapiens." Ida Karkoszka's work is both brave and poetic, and the catastrophe in its depiction has as much horror as beauty. Animals, culturally defined as ominous and impure, exude inner peace and distanced wisdom.
The words "noble simplicity and quiet grandeur" are fitting for Ida Karkoszka's sculptures. Johann Joachim Winckelmann described ancient art in the midst of hyperactive baroque aesthetics with these very words. Ida Karkoszka's sculptures are capable of appeal. However, falling to the taste is the last thing they are about. For Ida Karkoszka, solving problems, sculpting, and making aesthetic choices is not an end in itself. This is only a means to achieve the goal she sets for herself outside the field of art. Ida Karkoszka uses sculptures interventionally. She is a socially and ecologically engaged artist; in her work, she foots the bill for mindless evil and writes its history.
To achieve her goal, Ida Karkoszka leaves the safe space of a museum or a gallery.
Blurring the boundaries between art and life, Marcel Duchamp, famous for moving the urinal to the art gallery and titling it "Fountain" was also thinking of a return gesture, reciprocal (le ready-made réciproque), postulating "the use of Rembrandt as an ironing board." Ida Karkoszka creates formal masterpieces not for aesthetic purposes but to use them as a tool to change habits. The matter in which Ida Karkoszka sculpts is not exclusively acrylic resin, fabric, or aluminum. The artist primarily, first of all, transforms thinking patterns.
The title of the exhibition sounds like an invitation to watch the sculptures, but they are the ones to watch and judge. Role reversal is one of the artistic means used by Ida Karkoszka to revitalize feeling and thinking in a world suffering from a crisis of empathy and imagination. The roles of the work and the environment also seem to be reversed. Modern exhibitions have developed a streamlined, minimalist interior, the ideal embodiment of which is the white cube, allowing uninterrupted exposure of the artwork form and full resonance of its meanings. Ida Karkoszka's white, noble, silent sculptures direct the eye to the environment, its forms, and its senses.
A pig, a raven, and a rat look down from the roof of an iconic skyscraper at the sprawling skyline around Warsaw's business and transportation center, while photos of debris counterpoint the prestigious interiors of Warsaw's Marriott Hotel. The building was completed in 1989, and it quickly became the backdrop of a new social landscape, an eruption of wealth that filled deficits and promised a future based on notions of success, progress, and growth without asking about the hidden costs. Although the exhibition takes place without words, it is an eloquent commentary. Despite the lack of human figures, it is a profoundly humanistic work, a collective portrait of man, his creative possibilities, and the destructive potential of its creations.
Ida Karkoszka is a graduate of the Department of Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. The drive of her work is discord in the face of heartlessness
and institutionalized violence. The artist stands up for the weak and the wronged.
She is susceptible to the plight of animals. Characteristic of her work are realistic silhouettes of the animals she engages in changing the world. She is eager to leave the gallery interiors to give the sculptures a social resonance.
IDA KARKOSZKA (born 1985)
The artist drags a sculpture of a horse on the trail to Morskie Oko with her own hands as a sign of opposition to the slave use of animal labor in tourism. She organizes public fur collections to return them to their owners symbolically, and she creates a two-meter statue of a fox with a tail sewn from dead creatures to stop fur farming. Before the holidays, she walks
through shopping malls with a sculpture of a sheep with fashion brand labels sewn in place of fleece and reminds us that compulsive shopping is one of the most essential sources of littering the planet. Finally, she wanders for a year through the debris of the world with the sculptures as a silent appeal to change habits if we don't want to completely ruin the place to which we owe our lives.
Ida Karkoszka grew up in an artistic environment, but her early interests revolved around the natural sciences. She saw herself not so much in the arts as in veterinary medicine or surgery, professions that make a real difference in saving lives. Although she eventually graduated from the Department of Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw in the studio of Professor Antoni Janusz Pastwa, her early intuitions defined her later artistic choices influenced the corporeal, vital subject matter of her works and determined her perception of the artist's place and tasks in the world as a public speaker, fighting injustice and striving through art to change destructive attitudes and practices.
Ida Karkoszka draws on the tradition of European representational art. Ida Karkoszka's sculptures evoke the silhouettes of animals, which are used by the artist to combat mass phenomena at the intersection of power and systemic violence that primarily affect innocent victims. The artist is seen as an animal advocate and ally, as most of her works were included in the fight against bestiality justified by cultural norms. Ida Karkoszka's works have
been shown at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw and the Center for Polish Sculpture in Orońsko, among others. The artist has participated in group exhibitions at Studio Cannaregio in Venice and the Mark Rothko Center in Daugavpils. Her works are in the collection of the British Museum and private collections.
AWARDS, DISTINCTIONS:
- 2015 scholarship from the capital city Warsaw
- 2010 first Youth Award at the FIDEM international medalist congress
- 2008 first place in the sculpture of the year competition organized by OW ZPAP
- 2008 first place in the sculpture competition of the 4th quarter of 2008 organized by OW ZPAP
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS:
- 2023 collective exhibition "Let them sew! Contemporary Polish sewn sculpture”, CSW Znaki
- Time, Toruń
- 2022 author's exhibition "Bestiariusz", Pracownia Wschodnia, Warsaw
- 2022 action with Bartek Kiełbowicz "Have we done enough", Warsaw
- 2022 group exhibition "New Spirituality", Mark Rothko Center, Daugavpils
- 2022 collective exhibition "Let them sew! Contemporary Polish sewn sculpture", Studio
- Cannaregio, Venice
- 2021 group exhibition "Manifesto for a better life", Salon Gallery of the Academy,
- Warsaw
- 2021 author's exhibition "Till it's gone", Polish Sculpture Center, Orońsko
- 2020 collective exhibition "Something in Common" Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw
- 2020 collective exhibition, 9th Youth Triennial in Orońsko "While we live", Centrum
- Polish Sculpture, Orońsko
- 2020 author's exhibition "The exhibition that no one will see", Center of Polish Sculpture,
- Orońsko
- 2019 "The Role Reversed" action, route to Morskie Oko, Zakopane
About the Let's watch humans die project:
The “Let’s watch” exhibition is the first public installment of the artist’s project titled “Let’s watch humans die…” created at the turn of 2019 and 2020. The project was a series of photographs depicting sculptures of a pig, a raven and a rat as observers of disasters created by contemporary, consumer society in various places throughout Poland.
“The conceptual work turned into a multidisciplinary sculptural and photographic project “Let’s watch humans die”, which is a story about the journey of three animals around Poland. The cooperation between me, the photographers, the drone operator and the technicians was often a dangerous adventure. For a year we documented the unpleasant effects of human activity.”
~Ida Karkoszka
Photo authors: Andrzej Skowron, Igor Haloszka, Michal Szymel, Maciej Domagalski and Pawel Sudol.
All photos from the “Let’s watch humans die” project can be seen on the artist’s Instagram.
Works
For the media
Ida Karkoszka’s sculpture looks at the capital’s skyline from the edge of the roof of Warsaw’s Marriott Hotel!
A sculpture by Ida Karkoszka has been installed on the roof of the Warsaw Marriott Hotel, depicting a trio of animals: a pig, a raven and a rat, looking out over the capital’s skyline. The installation heralds a new exhibition organized by Limited Edition Gallery and Warsaw Marriott Hotel. This unobvious tandem is once again collaborating to promote Polish art. Ida Karkoszka’s exhibition entitled “Let’s watch” will open later in October.
This will be the first public unveiling of the artist’s project titled “Let’s watch humans die…” from 2020. The project was a series of photographs depicting the same animals in the role of observers of disasters created by modern, consumerist society in various locations across Poland. The sculptures were also displayed at the Polish Sculpture Center in Oronsko as an “Exhibition that no one will see” during the pandemic.
While creating these sculptures, I was thinking about the interspecies relationship and the impact of our self-centered, short-sighted actions on the environment and surroundings. I knew from the beginning that they would look down on us – silent witnesses of the final judgment to which we are subjected at our own request. – says the artist – The conceptual work turned into a multidisciplinary sculptural and photographic project, “Let’s watch humans die,” which is the story of a trio of animals’ journey through Poland. Together with Igor Haloszka, Michal Szymel, Andrzej Skowron, Maciej Domagalski and PawelSudol, we documented the unpleasant effects of human activity.
“LET’S WATCH” EXHIBITION
Artist Ida Karkoszka and exhibition curator Pawel Brylski will this time install sculptures in a hotel lobby, in the center of the capital. The exhibition at the Warsaw Marriott Hotel consists of the author’s cast sculptures in aluminum and bronze, acrylic resin sculptures, video works and photographs, which are a record of a year-long journey of the artist and her sculptures through places marked by destructive human activity.
The title of the exhibition sounds like an invitation to watch the sculptures, but they are the ones to observe and judge.Role reversal is one of the artistic means Ida Karkoszka uses to revive feeling and thinking in a world suffering from a crisis of empathy and imagination. – says Pawel Brylski, curator of the exhibition – The words “noble simplicity and quiet grandeur,” with which Johann Joachim Winckelmann described ancient art in the midst of the aesthetically hyperactive Baroque, fit Ida Karkoszka’s sculptures. For Ida Karkoszka, solving sculptural problems and making aesthetic choices are not ends in themselves, they are merely means to an end she sets for herself outside the field of art.
ORGANIZERS ABOUT COOPERATION
Iwona Staroszczyk of Limited Edition Gallery expressed her gratitude to the Marriott Hotel for its openness and understanding of Ida Karkoszka’s “Let’s watch” project: Compared to other institutions with which I had discussions about cooperation, the Marriott Hotel proved to be absolutely unbeatable. On the other hand, the sculptures presented at the exhibition successfully find their way into any environment, be it a rooftop, the lobby of a 5-star hotel or a garbage dump, because they are objectively good. Hence, the choice was Karkoszka.
I decided to cooperate with Limited Edition Gallery because I would like the Marriott Hotel to be perceived not only as an ordinary hotel, but also as a place where Polish artists can be presented and promoted,” says Darek Oleksiak, Managing Director of Warsaw Marriott Hotel, “The idea of placing the sculpture of Ms. Karkoszka on the roof of the hotel was so original that I simply could not refuse.
KARKOSZKA SCULPTURES
When asked about her choice of creative path in one of her interviews, Ida Karkoszka said […]I have some kind of primordial bond with matter and spatial solids. As I work in the solid I connect with it and materialize emotions…In the project “Let’s watch” It was deliberate to make images of animals that have bad connotations in people’s minds. Karkoszka makes the inversion. It is known who is oppressive. Thanks to her talent, she was able to convey to viewers in aluminum, bronze and acrylic resin the sensitivity of animals and their ability to understand the gravity of the situation when juxtaposed with the destructive activities of humans, mindlessly devastating the environment. – says Wieslawa Widerinska, an art historian – In the work of a sculptor, rendering the features of physical resemblance is very important but not enough. It is important to convey the emotions of the model.If this is successful, we are dealing with an object that has the hallmarks of a work of art. And such are the sculptures of Ida Karkoszka.
IDA KARKOSZKA
She is a sculptor who engages in environmental and social issues. Among other things, she is the author of a high-profile protest action – dragging a sculpture of a horse on the road to Morskie Oko,artistic commentaries on the functioning of the fur industry, the poisoning of the Oder River, or the felling of trees in the Bialowieza Forest. She points out social inequalities and fights for animal rights.Exposing a tangible medium such as sculpture in public space is her tool for expressing emotions. With it, he compels reflection and dialogue.Karkoszka’s sculptures have been presented at many important exhibitions including. at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, the Polish Sculpture Center in Orońsko, Studio Cannaregio in Venice and the Mark Rothko Center in Daugavpils. Her works are in the collection of the British Museum.
VERNISSAGE
The opening of the Let’s watch exhibition will take place on October 26, 2023 (Thursday) at 18:30 in the lobby of the Warsaw Marriott Hotel and online at the gallery’s website (https://limitededition.pl/).The exhibition will run until November 23, 2023. Curatorial tours are planned as part of the exhibition. Free admission.ORGANIZERS Limited Edition Contemporary Art Gallery (https://limitededition.pl/)Warsaw Marriott Hotel (https://www.warsawmarriott.pl/)
PARTNERS
SMGP, Miscellaneous Stuff, Everest, Aerial Shots PawelSudol.com
MEDIA PATRONS
Artinfo.pl, Art in Warsaw, Polish Masters of Art