Roots

Artists and designers search for common traditions and identities. Individual and universal stories at an exhibition of arts, design and crafts.

The exhibition is part of the Polish-Czech project entitled „Roots - the community of sources, search and inspiration. Art and design on both sides of the border”.
Project co-financed by the European Union from the European Regional Development Fund under the INTERREG V-A Program Czech Republic-Poland 2014-2020 and from the state budget of Poland

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Roots, which constitute the leitmotif of the new group exhibition of arts, design and crafts, are  perceived not only  in terms of  origin and descent, but also as a common pool of sources, quests and inspirations. The curator, Lucyna Wylon, seeks to explore different forms of artistic  expression and the results of quests for sources, often surprising and unexpected.

The participating artists, designers, craftsmen and company representatives  focus  on different meanings of roots. They apply  various techniques, materials and means of expression in order to search for roots which are shared by individuals, tribes and nations. They draw from  regional traditions, histories of their hometowns, as well as their family and personal stories. The works selected for the exhibition address a number of themes which have long been overarching different groups and cultures in Bielsko-Biała and neighbouring areas – the meeting point of Silesian, Beskid, Czech, German and Jewish cultures. The  exhibition features a wide range of objects, including furniture, lamps, ceramics, pottery, glass, fabrics, sculptures, painting, graphics and Polish and Hebrew calligraphy.

Lucyna Wylon, the curator:
The concept of the exhibition evolved from a botanical analogy – all of us have some roots: shallow or deep, thick and strong or thin and delicate but extensive and entwined with others ... What grows out of them – or on them, is always interesting and quite unpredictable.
Sometimes new cultures are grafted on the main shoot of the plant, sometimes, while replanting, roots are heavily  cut (often to the detriment of the living organism), sometimes they get intertwined with the  roots of other plants and it is no longer possible to tell what is growing from which roots.
Roots; it is irrelevant whether we think about them every day or just occasionally – they are part of us and they form the base which supports the entire structure. Even though we don’t see them, they provide us with food (inspiration), connect us to a network of single-species or inter-species connections, and provide  the foundation and source of strength.
The artists, designers and craftsmen  displaying their work at the exhibition, draw from their roots, and yet they each do it  in a different way. While choosing different means expression, techniques and materials, all of them search for common roots shared by individuals, tribes or nations; they draw from traditions, histories of their hometowns, family and personal lives.  These are personal stories they share with others, which makes them unique, and at the same time  universal.
I wonder which of the stories will find their way to the viewers’ hearts and whether they will succeed in tracing common roots in the exhibited objects.

Artists and designers participating in the exhibition include: Agnieszka Bar, Aleksandra Chmiel, Monika Dąbrowska-Picewicz, Jacenty Dędek, Jolanta Herma-Pasińska, Maciej Gąsienica-Giewont, Artur Gburek, Mariusz Gruszka, Remigiusz Gryt, Roman Hryciów, Dagmara Karolak, Antoni Konarzewski, Bogdan Kosak, Jakub Markiel, Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, Izabela Ewa Ołdak, Elżbieta Trzewiczek-Pietkiewicz and Sebastian Pietkiewicz, Paulina Poczęta, Krystyna Pytel, Adam Sobota, Jonáš Stoklasa, Petra Sošťáková i Libor Sošťák (P3L1) and companies: Gie El, KrygiDesign, Mazzivo, MiPolin (Helena Czernek, Aleksander Prugar), Paged Meble, Woodica.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a series of special events, including workshops of art and design run  by the participating artists, meetings and lectures, a concert to welcome summer  and a curated tour.

Many of these activities are addressed to audiences on both sides of the Polish-Czech border.

Lucyna Wylon – artist, designer, curator and cultural animator. Degree in fashion design and painting at the Academy of Art in Łódź (1988).  Numerous group  exhibitions at a local and national level  (since 1990). Former manager and curator of more than 45 exhibitions in the art gallery Fraktal in Bielsko-Biała (2003- 2009). She has cooperated with Galeria Bielska BWA since 2010. She lives in Bielsko-Biała.

The schedule of the new Polish-Czech project will be published soon.
Vernissage: Friday, 28 June, 6.30 p.m.

The catalogue of the exhibition online >>

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