THE GERMANS DID NOT COME
Małgorzata Miśniakiewicz
2015
catalogue of a group show
19.12.2014–23.2.2015 Muzeum Współczesne Wrocław
curator: Michał Bieniek
publisher: ART TRANSPARENT Fundacja Sztuki Współczesnej, Biuro Festiwalowe IMPART 2016, Muzeum Współczesne Wrocław
Wrocław 2015
ISBN: 978-83-940714-1-7
graphic design: AnoMalia
The work refers to Oskar Hansen’s Svetovid, shown during the Wrocław ’70 Symposium. In this work, however, Sokolnicka perversely reverses the logic and relations of perception: instead of viewing the cityscape from a new perspective, her Svetovid does not point at anything. Surrounded by the concrete walls of the bunker, it is more of an invitation to eye the horizon with an imaginary eye and, in keeping of the open form theory, it obliges the viewer to build the context drawing on individual feelings, emotions and memories. Although the cylindrical sculpture, made of Lower Silesian marble, replicates the shape of the bunker and makes a reference to the local ‟memory of stones”, while the wind rose carved at its base refers to ‟Rose Stadt”, as Wrocław used to be called once, these refers to the city’s past are rather ambiguous suggestions, a barely noticeable background to overlapping stories. What is important to the artist is the ambivalent symbolism of the wheel of fullness, infinity and wheel of life, as well as a vicious circle and the Wheel of Dharma. Sokolnicka’s Svetovid can therefore be considered as a peculiar anti-monument that refers to emptiness and absence. Following this thread of interpretation, it is the viewer who must step on the plinth, and the object of observation is not the surroundings, but the viewer him/herself, which emphasises today’s concentration on oneself, one’s own image and visibility.
Światowit / Svetovid
object, "White Marianna" marble, mined in the Śnieżnik massif until recently in Lower Silesia, 40 x 40 x 20 cm, 2014
Oskar Hansen’s project from Sympozjum Wrocław ‘70
—courtesy of Contemporary Museum Wrocław
