Tree. Wood. Material or sacred?

Two wood sculpture exhibitions, an open air sculpture workshop for young adults, a panel discussion and many more events within the project Tree. Wood. Material or Sacred?

The main events of the project executed by Galeria Bielska BWA under the name of Tree. Wood. Material or Sacred? are exhibitions of contemporary wood sculpture by Józek Nowak and Marcin Rząsa. For both artists, wood is the exclusive sculptural material. Both create entire human figures from a single piece of wood, but the way they are treated is different. The programme includes many events related to the role of wood as a natural material close to man, but also the place of trees in the ecosystem and the need to protect them.
The project’s founder and curator is Agata Smalcerz.

Agata Smalcerz, curator of the project “Tree. Wood. Material or Sacred?”:
Our aim is to draw attention to wood, a sculptural material that is treated by artists as a material 'with a soul'. This is because wood used to be a living tree, and a tree is an important part of the ecosystem, the importance of which is increasingly recognised, not only by environmentalists, but also by ordinary citizens. It is officials, politicians, decision-makers who find it hardest to understand how important trees are for people. The felling of trees in cities, the logging of forests continues to accelerate and environmental awareness is still not widespread. Fortunately, a lot is changing and we should be optimistic that people will understand in time that a lot depends on them. Trees in various cultures were once treated as if they had a divine element: sacred groves in the Pre-Slavs, medieval monastery gardens reflecting the world order. Worshipped as the seat of a deity in primitive cultures. Nowadays, we admire old trees and have great respect for them - the oldest trees in the world are several thousand years old, in Poland they are over a thousand years old. They are older than our civilisations, our cultures, which seem to us to be developed and long-lived.
A dead tree is not waste, it becomes wood, one of the most valuable materials available to mankind. And although it serves us in various areas of life, when used in art it becomes an expression of lofty ideas, arouses great emotions, and becomes a work of great cultural significance. Although fragile and seemingly impermanent, exposed to destruction by water and fire, it can survive for hundreds of years impressing successive generations. Wood carvings can be polychrome painted, thus gaining visual value, but they can also remain raw, so that the species of tree is recognisable, its structure visible, its smell perceptible.
For centuries, woodcarving has been one of the most important branches of art, masterpieces such as the altarpiece of Wit Stwosz in Kraków or the medieval Beautiful Madonnas are an unquestionable treasure of mankind. Today, woodcarving is the domain of folk art, but wood as a carving material still finds its adherents. Polished wood, with its grain pattern and species-specific colour, is used in abstract sculpture, where the form is often just a pretext for showing the materiality of the wood.


Tree. Wood. Material or Sacred?
curator: Agata Smalcerz

The project schedule:
Galeria Bielska BWA, ul. 3 Maja 11
2 June 2023 – 27 August 2023
Exhibitions of wood sculpture
Józek Nowak – Artists (upper room)
Marcin Rząsa – Silence (lower room)
The opening: Friday, 2 June 2023 at 6 pm


The garden of Sixt’s Villa, ul. Adama Mickiewicza 24
12–16 June 2023
Plein air workshop for young adults
run by Marcin Rząsa
To participate in the open-air workshop, the gallery invited young people from the Antoni Kenar State Secondary School of Visual Arts in Zakopane and the Julian Fałat State Secondary School of Visual Arts in Bielsko-Biała.
During the open-air workshop, the audience – both inhabitants of Bielsko-Biała and tourists – will be able to observe the process of making the sculptures.


Celebration of the tree at Sixt’s Villa
Friday, 16 June 2023:
2pm
Finale of the open-air sculpture workshop, presentation of the works created
6pm
Tree. Wood. Material or sacred? – panel discussion
A panel discussion on the role of trees in the ecosystem and the need to protect them, and also on wood as a natural material close to man, with the participation of artists working with wood, ecologists and officials responsible for trees in the city.

The panel will be moderated by Agata Smalcerz.

Participants:
Marcin Rząsa – sculptor artist; runs Antoni Rząsa Gallery in Zakopane at ul. Bogdańskiego 16a; Tatra guide; lives and works in Zakopane.
Anna Bera – designer, sculptor, visual artist, carpenter; since 2014, under the brand The Whole Elements, she has been creating handmade wooden furniture, situated on the borderline between utilitarian objects and sculptural works of art.
Jacek Bożek – Polish environmental activist, activist, founder and president, Klub Gaja.
Dariusz Gajny – passionate landscape architect, propagator of gardening culture; employed in the Department of Municipal Economy of the Bielsko-Biała City Hall; holds the position of city gardener.


Agata Smalcerz – art historian and critic, exhibition curator, author of tests on contemporary art, director of Galeria Bielska BWA.
Graduate of art history at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków (1988).
Author of famous exhibitions presenting women’s art (Galeria Bielska BWA 1996, 2001, 2007); as well as others including: “Signs of the Time” at the Polish Institute in Düsseldorf (Germany, 2005); the exhibition of the Silesian Collection of Contemporary Art at the Arsenal Gallery in Białystok (2007), Natalia LL at the Art New Media Gallery in Warsaw (2008).
Curator of exhibitions presenting, according to her own selection, the Art Collection of Galeria Bielska BWA. These include “Place for Art” (Koszęcin, Concert Hall, 2015); “Show 4.” (Galeria Bielska BWA, Bielsko-Biała 2016), “On the other side (of the mirror)” (Czech Republic, Iglawa, Zlin, 2017); “Experience of the body” (Galeria Bielska BWA Gorzów Wielkopolski, 2017); “For Johanne and Anna” (Sixt’s Villa, Bielsko-Biała, 2020); “Duality” (Gallery Sector 1 in the Jaworzno City Museum, 2022).
She curates successive review exhibitions in the Bielsko-Biała Visual Arts Festival cycle.
As the main organiser of the oldest painting competition in Poland and a member of the competition jury, she strives to ensure that the Bielska Jesień Painting Biennale in Bielsko-Biała has a broad, innovative formula.
She has been connected with Galeria Bielska BWA since 1992, and has been its director since June 1st 2003. As director of Galeria Bielska BWA, she implemented the project entitled “Revitalisation of the Villa of Teodor Sixt in Bielsko-Biała” (2014-2020), co-financed by EU and national funds.


Also planned for the duration of the exhibitions are workshops, guided tours, including haptics for the blind, with sign language interpretation, in Ukrainian, for families with children, for senior citizens.


Read more about the exhibition “Artists” by Józek Nowak >>
Read more about the exhibition “Silence” by Marcin Rząsa >>
Read more about Six’t Villa and the garden >>