Exhibition will run: 12 February – 15 March 2015
Venue : Bunkier Sztuki Contemporary Art Gallery, ground floor
Curators: Bartosz Przybył Ołowski, Ewa Tatar
Project partner: Fundacja Razem Pamoja
Kombucha is nothing else but a fermented drink of sweetened tea, originally made in Japan from kombu, an edible seaweed. The seemingly innocuous jellylike substance is said to have unusual healing properties such as cleansing and regeneration of the body, stimulation of the immune system and restoration of natural balance. As a result of natural fermentation, kombucha turns into a fizzy drink, not unlike orangeade. Enlightenment encyclopaedists dreamt of – in addition to hot and cold water taps – a third tap squirting the bubbly beverage. Today, it is art that can prove the effervescent source of nourishment in an otherwise tame world. Let us hope that the supposed beneficial characteristics of the eponymous kombucha do prove effective in the field of contemporary art.
The group exhibition Kombucha comprises works by participants of the workshop Creative Method Disenchanted , produced at Bunkier Sztuki in 2014, works by the artists Joanna Piotrowska and Dawid Misiorny made in response to the project as well as works by Kenyan artists. The works created for the occasion draw on diverse traditions of contemporary art, including conceptual and socially conscious art. The participants’ works are defined through their own aspirations, fantasies, needs and limitations, such as, for example, the need to create a space that would reflect an impossible world. The workshop, organised in 2014, was based on the premise of expanding the ranks of those employed by the industry of the prevailing cultural ethos. The workshop tested the boundary between amateur and professional art, aiming to explore whether it is at all possible to have a free creative process derived from passion alone and directed towards pleasure, including that of the viewer. During the encounter in Bunkier Sztuki, a group of artists active outside mainstream art in Nairobi and in Krakow discussed global trends in art over the last four decades and tested the findings practically, realising as many fantasies as it is possible to create in the reality around us, while removing social and cultural differences.
Participants:
Iddi Bahir, Asia Baś, Agnieszka Berezowska, Jakub Bolewski, Elżbieta Ciępka, Szymon Cisek, Paul Gitagia, John Njoroge Kamau, Andrzej Karoń, Hiram Ngaithe Kinuthia, Joanna Klich, Filip Kogut, Kacper Kordus, Dawid Kosacki, Katarzyna Kościelniak, Małgorzata Król, Krzysztof Maciaszek, KadriNoormets, Edwin Mainagathu, Perric Mugambiok, Kennedy Oluoch, George Ouma, Anna Poduszyńska, Aleksandra Powalacz, Prekariat, Klaudia Quaranta, Agata Reichert, Vero Rodowicz, Tamara Rohe, Anna Sadowska, Karolina Spyrka, Monika Stolarska, Anna Szarwiło, Joane Wangari, Asia Warchał, Tomasz Wiech, Agnieszka Wilczyńska- Jaroch, Ewelina Zając, Magdalena Zawieracz, Magda Żmijowska
Featuring Dawid Misiorny, Joanna Piotrowska and Thomas Hirschhorn
Curators: Bartosz Przybył Ołowski, Ewa Tatar
Curatorial cooperation: Anna Batko, Kamil Kuitkowski
and Przemysław Branas, Agnieszka Doniec, Nick Hobbs, Mikołaj Moskal, Tomasz Węgorzewski
