Zachęta Project Room

curator: Magda Kardasz
co-operation: Pola Gadowska

‘The ray of light that we are must finally rejoin the nature and meaning of the sun: it must give itself away, lose itself without calculation.’ 

Georges Bataille, The Accursed Share 

Bataille draws our attention to the fact that we are light. This idea is further developed by Viktor Frankl, who points to its transformative power: ‘What is to give light must endure burning’. We take this as an invitation to enter another dimension of life – an encounter with the heart. We see the heart as our inner sun: as a source of strength, love and light, but also as a force that orders and burns. Growth requires acceptance of the burning – in other words, coming to terms with death, both literal (grief) and symbolic (the end of love, relationships, the loss of wealth or dreams). This acceptance leads to letting go, which leads to liberation. What interests us is the power of the light that burns and scorches – and our willingness and decision to accept the cost, to say goodbye to what is no longer present in our lives. This willingness opens the way to transformation, cleansing, healing and liberation. 

Małgorzata Szandała, Marta Szulc, Monika Waraxa 

Małgorzata Szandała (b. 1977) works at the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice. She creates site-specific installations, objects, visual essays and videos. She is the author of the book Schrony przeciwatomowe i słowniki [Atomic shelters and dictionaries]. Her work explores various forms of narrative at the intersection between factual accounts of real events and the fiction that emerges from them. 

Marta Szulc (b. 1980) — a graduate of the Faculty of Graphic Arts at the European Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. A visual artist, she works with painting, drawing and engraving, which she treats as elements of her installations. In recent years she has explored and worked on the theme of family relationships in the context of trauma. She is the author of the comics ten z... and Spleen.

Monika Waraxa (b. 1977) — a graduate of the Faculty of Painting and the Doctoral School at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. In her PhD thesis Traces of the Goddess in the Multiverse Web she reconstructs the genealogy of her maternal line through a series of portraits. A visual artist and writer whose writing has appeared in Contemporary Lynx and Przekrój, she works with painting, video and performance, often exploring feminist and spiritual themes. She runs the blog Czego nie widać [What is not seen].