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Art Agenda Nova, Kraków, 2016

 

An island, or a landmass, especially one smaller than a continent, entirely surrounded by water, is a recurrent motif in literature and film. The topos of the island is identified not only with the motif of paradise, but also with the island as utopia – an isolated, solitary place, which is almost provocative of evil. The villain of the story is nature. A pretext for creating this project were stories I gathered from Icelanders, in which I observed the following pattern: while my interlocutors displayed a very strong attachment to nature, I simultaneously got the impression that nature often overwhelmed them, as if they were living in a state of constant oppression. Works created after returning from the titular island present forces of nature, trivializing threats they pose, in the face of which humans are helpless. 

 

ISLAND