Opening: December 17, 2016, 7 pm
Exhibition is on view through February 4, 2017
Tuesday – Saturday, 12 noon – 7pm
In his newest installation, Mirosław Filonik sketches with light a spatial drawing of two columns, which fit themselves into the interior of the Profile Foundation. As usual, the artist utilises basic geometric forms, which create, through repetition, rhythmic spatial arrangements based on an expanding, modular structure. The installation consists primarily of light – just like in all the artist’s works created since the late 1980s. The source of light are fluorescent tubes with all necessary equipment, visible to the viewer. Thanks to dedicated fluorescent lamps made for the artist by Philips Lighting Poland, he can achieve light similar to the natural one.
The spatial composition named K2 has been designed in relation to the space and interior architecture of the room, with a round column dominating the space. The gossamer structures of two columns, seeming to hang in space, appear to simultaneously continue and counterbalance the main column. Their vertical forms have been constructed basing on a semi-cubical metal module, which became a medium for the geometric light pattern. Rhythm-based work, typical for Filonik, refer to trance-like, meditative practices of the Far East. Visually minimalistic, narrative-free installation is complemented by special sound design created by Tadeusz Sudnik, a musician and composer, who had worked with Filonik before. Sound, in harmony with the rhythm of light, expands the immaterial dimension of the installation and its reception space.
The presentation of the new project is accompanied by a display of photographic and film documentation of Mirosław Filonik’s artistic practices, beginning from the late 1980s. The documentation includes ephemeral installations created in interiors, in open spaces, on fronts of buildings, developed for dedicated places, with consideration of their spatial conditions and architecture. The collected documentation includes several dozen spectacular worksfrom the Daylight System series, initiated in the early 1990s (e.g. on the windows of the Hotel of Art in Lodz), on the Granary Island in Gdansk (1994), on the front of the University of Bialystok building (1995), on the front of the Xawery Dunikowski Museum of Sculpture at the Królikarnia in Warsaw (1996), on the towers of the Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw (1997), on the building of the Old Town Hall in Gdansk (1997), on the front of the Branicki Palace – Arsenal Gallery in Bialystok (2000), inside the Łaźnia Centre for Contemporary Art in Gdansk (2002). The show will also include the presentation of Freiburg 1994 with music by Sławomir Kulpowicz – a film interpretation of Filonik’s work created in 1994 at Kunstverein in Freiburg.
Mirosław Filonik (1958), studied at the Sculpture Department of the Academy of Arts in Warsaw. Soon before his graduation, together with Mirosław Bałka and Marek Kijewski he founded the Neue Bieremiennost group – one of the most influential Polish art groups of the late 1980s. The group created 12 exhibitions, actions and readings. Filonik has been creating installations using fluorescent tubes since late 1980s. During the last three decades, he has made several dozen installations involving light, rhythm of signs and simple geometric forms. He is also the author of a number of monumental installations presented in interiors and in open spaces, on building fronts, towers, windows of contemporary and historical buildings.
Tadeusz Sudnik (1955), musician, composer, sound director. Founder of the Impossible Sound Studio, creator of multimedia concerts/theatrical shows. He worked at the Experimental Studio of the Polish Radio in Warsaw, where he recorded and engineered electronic, theatrical, film and ballet music. He cooperates with festivals such as Warsaw Autumn and Ad Libitum and with the Polish Society for Contemporary Music in Warsaw.
