An itch You can’t scratch

‘An Itch You Can’t Scratch’ by Markus Proschek, Yasmin Nebenführ, Marit Wolters, Filip Rybkowski and Michał Sroka focuses on the process of uncovering layers - digging through the stratigraphy of piled-up histories and meanings. In their works, the artists touch on the phenomenon of contextual analysis of the layers: sediments of information that are best interpreted by an artist-geologist or archaeologist. They investigate specific places and specific narratives, examining them, transforming them or making corrections or reconstructions. They incorporate into the the structure of their works bits of fragmented history, exposing them like ancient spolia - looted or appropriated elements of preexisting reality. Such work with history is always a political act, as it is based on decisions about what should be cared for and what will be forgotten – which narrative will gain a new context, and which will be condemned to silence. The montage of meanings and matter contaminates the surface of the image, making it impossible to be read unambiguously – history, after all, is never simple. It mixes voices, opinions, hopes and desires. The project also shows the work of the artist as a researcher or geologist – based on cumulative or systematic, analytical deconstruction. After all, every creative process is based on the dynamics of superimposing and decomposing, adding and subtracting, leaving traces and erasing them.

The exhibition features, for the first time in Warsaw, objects, installations and photographic works that will guide us through the layering of contexts, meanings, forms and material surfaces.

The project was created in cooperation with the Foundation for Visual Arts and Krakow Photomonth, and with the support of the City of Krakow.