The Folds
permanent installation in Wrocław (PL) city center,
Barbara building, Wrocław
unveiled 9th Jun 2017
white concrete
3 parts relief, 3 x 3 m each part
2015—17
co-operation:
Marta Mnich, vroa – architectural supervision
Michał Bieniek, curator of ESK2016
The Folds take a simple form of a three-part relief set on Barbara building in the midst of what mainly exemplifies the modernist architecture of Wrocław after the WWII. Each part of the relief forms a curtain cast in white, self-cleaning concrete, the marble of modernity. The use of this material includes ambivalency, as it improved housing crisis around the globe but for a huge environmental costs. And, alike, the motif of a curtain has a broad semantic field implying a variety of possible interpretations. Depending on the intention of the user, the curtain offers protection, emphasizes importance, adds lightness, shields, but on the other hand, it conceals and separates, it bars access and blocks a view and possibly signals intentions which are not completely clear.
Gilles Deleuze in The Fold (le pli) approaches consciousness as the result of matter that has been folded and folded and folded until exteriority has become interiority. Thus, to unfold is to grow, whereas to fold is to diminish, to reduce. The washed-out-antique relief refers to the idea of democracy, that is defined differently and changes through ages. The Folds are embedded in the contexts of the 2016 European Capital of Culture in Wrocław (PL), the rich history of this city and the perpetual European debate on the architecture and culture of the region. The lifting of the ”iron curtain” between the East and the West continues to be an important topic for European societies. During the period of being European Capital of Culture Wrocław was meant to play a role in incessant transformation of the divisivefunction of the curtain into a decorative one. A potentialsuccess of this process though remains to be seen.
The realisation of the work was made possible thanks to: Katarzyna Zielińska (ESK 2016), Dariusz Kosiarski (Impart2016), Jucha Beton.
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permanent installation in Wrocław (PL) city center,
Barbara building, Wrocław
unveiled 9th Jun 2017
white concrete
3 parts relief, 3 x 3 m each part
2015—17
co-operation:
Marta Mnich, vroa – architectural supervision
Michał Bieniek, curator of ESK2016
The Folds take a simple form of a three-part relief set on Barbara building in the midst of what mainly exemplifies the modernist architecture of Wrocław after the WWII. Each part of the relief forms a curtain cast in white, self-cleaning concrete, the marble of modernity. The use of this material includes ambivalency, as it improved housing crisis around the globe but for a huge environmental costs. And, alike, the motif of a curtain has a broad semantic field implying a variety of possible interpretations. Depending on the intention of the user, the curtain offers protection, emphasizes importance, adds lightness, shields, but on the other hand, it conceals and separates, it bars access and blocks a view and possibly signals intentions which are not completely clear.
Gilles Deleuze in The Fold (le pli) approaches consciousness as the result of matter that has been folded and folded and folded until exteriority has become interiority. Thus, to unfold is to grow, whereas to fold is to diminish, to reduce. The washed-out-antique relief refers to the idea of democracy, that is defined differently and changes through ages. The Folds are embedded in the contexts of the 2016 European Capital of Culture in Wrocław (PL), the rich history of this city and the perpetual European debate on the architecture and culture of the region. The lifting of the ”iron curtain” between the East and the West continues to be an important topic for European societies. During the period of being European Capital of Culture Wrocław was meant to play a role in incessant transformation of the divisivefunction of the curtain into a decorative one. A potentialsuccess of this process though remains to be seen.
The realisation of the work was made possible thanks to: Katarzyna Zielińska (ESK 2016), Dariusz Kosiarski (Impart2016), Jucha Beton.
installation views during the day and night
detail, during the installation process at Barbara building
casts removed from the molds, August 2017
casts removed from the molds, August 2017