Przemyslaw Piniak

Dominika Olszowy, Klaudia Figura, Julia Woronowicz, Czaro Malinkiewicz, Paweł Marcinek, Przemysław Piniak, Zuza Piekoszewska, Maryna Sakowska, Karolina Szwed

curated by Przemek Sowiński (Łęctwo, Poznań) and hosted by The Tiger Room

9.05 – 14.06.2025

Opening: 9.05.2025, 5pm

Heßstr. 48 b, 80798 Munich

Julia Woronowicz, Sphinx and Foal, 2024, courtesy of the artist

The exhibition “Roztopy” explores the relationship between a characteristic Polish landscape of melting snow, folklore, and tradition, and what remains following the political, social, and economic upheavals of the 1990s. “Roztopy” translates as snowmelt, a transitional period in which one condition changes into another. It refers to a specific moment in time that captures the tension between what has passed and what is to come. The show features recent work of young Polish artists, approaching the theme from an economic perspective, the shifting locations and the resurfacing of emotions that are becoming more obvious after a period of stagnation. Just like any transformation, melting snow reveals what lies beneath. Cracks, debris, and everything else that went unseen is forced into a confrontation, just like we face buried memories. The works are connected by the notions of transgression and experimentation. This is a story about the mud we bring from the streets into our own homes.

Roztopy widmet sich der Verbindung zwischen der schmelzenden Schneelandschaft Polens, ihrer Folklore und Tradition sowie den Spuren, die die politischen, sozialen und wirtschaftlichen Umbrüche der 1990er Jahre hinterlassen haben. Roztopy bedeutet Schneeschmelze – eine Übergangsphase, in der ein Zustand in einen anderen übergeht. Der Begriff beschreibt einen Moment der Spannung zwischen Vergangenem und Zukünftigem. Gezeigt werden aktuelle Arbeiten junger polnischer Künstler*innen, die sich dem Thema aus einer wirtschaftlichen Perspektive nähern und die Veränderungen sichtbar machen, die nach einer Zeit der Stagnation einsetzen. Wie die Schneeschmelze verborgene Risse und Trümmer freilegt, zwingen uns die Werke, sich mit verschütteten Erinnerungen auseinanderzusetzen. Was die Arbeiten vereint, ist die Bereitschaft zum Experiment und das Spiel mit Grenzen. Die Ausstellung erzählt die Geschichte des Schlamms, den wir unweigerlich von draußen mit nach Hause bringen.

Zuza Piekoszewska, Natalia Karczewska, Magda Starska, Grzegorz Bożek, Paweł Marcinek und Przemysław Piniak

(curated by Łęctwo)

31.07 – 19.08.2022

Lothringer 13 Studio, Lothringer Straße 13, 81667 Munich

We breathe the remains of everything that was, 2022, exhibition view

Zuza Piekoszewska, Future Traveller II, 2022, mixed media: bioplastic,
spray paint, varnish

Zuza Piekoszewska, Future Traveller II, 2022, mixed media: bioplastic,
spray paint, varnish (detail)

Magda Starska, Volcano, 2012, assisted readymade: sideboard,
kettle, plaster

Magda Starska, Volcano, 2012, assisted readymade: sideboard,
kettle, plaster (detail)

Natalia Karczewska, Avo-hat-touch, 2022, mixed media installation:
wood, paper, textiles, lightbulb, pencil, marker, resin, plexi,

Magda Starska, Together better, 2021, acrylic on canvas

Pawel Marcinek, Common Horizon, 2022, mixed media installation:
umbrella wires, plaster, ashes, dust

Zuza Piekoszewska, Coarctate pupa, 2021, mixed media:
bioplastic, linen and Future Traveller II, mixed media: bioplastic,
spray paint, varnish

Zuza Piekoszewski, Future Traveller II, mixed media: bioplastic,
spray paint, varnish

Pawel Marcinek, Feeling Secure, 2021, mixed media: iron, wood,
plaster and Grzegorz Bozek, Gray Crow Spirit, 2022, egg tempera on wooden
board

Pawel Marcinek, Feeling Secure, 2021, mixed media: iron, wood,
plaster

Grzegorz Bozek, Gray Crow Spirit, 2022, egg tempera on wooden
board

Przemyslaw Piniak, PylniceP, 2019, video installation, markerpen
on cotton

Pawel Marcinek, The year before, 2021, mixed media: burnt
steering wheel, plaster

Przemyslaw Piniak, Niebieskis, blue-eyed mushroom found on
Pucka island, 2022, paper and gold sweet-wrappers, wooden board

Opening Speech:

Many of you here know GiG from its days at Baumstr. 11. Some of you might even remember the last series of exhibitions there, ‘Thinking Nature’ featuring artists such as Elke Dreier, Johanna Strobel, Kalas Liebfried, Julia Klemm, Justin Liebermann, Lilian Robl and many others. This exhibition is a continuation of that series, but with a slight shift in focus: instead of thought, the theme is memory. How it relates to our thinking about nature remains unchanged.

For this exhibition, GiG invite Lectwo from Poznan, Poland, and its director, Przemek Sowiński to be the curator. He in turn responded to the theme through this idea of ‘breath’ as something physical, something shared and something transformative. We breathe out slowly when we hear something surprising – we inhale sharply in fear. Together with our heartbeat, breathing structures our sense of time, each breath already past, present and future. If when thinking, the concept of memory often becomes too much like the concept of history, a series of events arranged according to importance, the memories held in a breath have a linearity free from such punctuation. They are alive.

As an introduction to the exhibition, Dr. Sebastian Truskolaski traveling from Berlin, kindly agreed to hold a brief discussion of Adorno’s short text, ‘Heliotrope’. We chose this text together as a good way of engaging with the themes of the exhibition: breathing, memory, nature (Heliotropism being the ability of plants to turn towards the sun). The text takes the shape of Adorno’s childhood memory. A glamorous aunt comes to visit, carrying suitcases with stickers from exotic locations. Little Theodor breaths in the heavy scent of her French perfume and is immediately transported to the world of grown-ups, which is also a long-lost fairyland. The child at once gains access to a foreign land, and recovers what he once had.