decorative articles

“In Poland, I see a lot of art on the streets everywhere,” a German photographer remarked in 1986 – on the occasion of his first visit to Lublin. Not knowing the Polish language, he was referring to the shop signs with inscriptions such as: art. papiernicze, art. spożywcze, art. przemysłowe, which means: stationery, consumer articles, industrial articles.

The title of the exhibition at the Biała Gallery in Lublin decorative articles (art. dekoracyjne) emphasizes the ambiguity of the word “article”, its abbreviation, which suggested art to the aforementioned foreigner. An article also means a journalistic, literary or scientific text next to the designation of things that are the subject of the transaction.

The decorative articles exhibition refers to objects – objects of art with articulated visuality, which enrich the place, decorate and fill the space. Through their presence, the environment is created and an interior of a sensual, semantic character is created. The planned artistic metamorphosis of all exhibition rooms in the Biała Gallery will be possible thanks to the meeting of visual artists, designers, architects and craftsmen from all over Poland in one multithreaded exhibition.
The concept of decorating, arranging, domesticating, but above all taming art can be realized through the creative use of plastic, ceramics, fabric, glass, wood, paper and other, less obvious materials. The consequence of these artistic activities seems to be a reflection on the problem of consumerism, ecology, ergonomics, recycling, social responsibility as an alternative way of functioning, not only through art.

The idea of the exhibition is an attempt to reflect on such issues as: lack – excess, cooperation – self-sufficiency, independence – context, usefulness – uselessness, private place – random place, empathy – apathy, chaos – order, art – decoration, past – present.

The exhibition will include premiere works dedicated to decorative articles and works already realized, but never presented in the Biała Gallery. As part of the task, a unique publication will be created, the presentation of which is planned on the last day of the exhibition on 29th of July 2022

Participating in the exhibition: Oliwia Beszczyńska, Marcin Chomicki, Grzegorz Drozd, Jacek Fijałkowski, Magdalena Franczak, Natalia Gruszecka, Hakobo, Maja Kitajewska, Jarosław Koziara, Danuta Krupska-Sołowiej, Danuta Kuciak, Alicja Łukasiak, Jan Mioduszewski, Monika Patuszyńska, Pol/Sztyma/Wolna group, Magdalena Rukasz, Dawid Ryski, Krzysztof Sołowiej, Kamil Stańczak, Mariusz Tarkawian, Marcin Zawicki and Agata Zwierzyńska.

Curator of the exhibition: Anna Nawrot

Projekt dofinansowany ze środków Ministra Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego pochodzących z Funduszu Promocji Kultury – państwowego funduszu celowego