BEYOND TABOO IV. CASTAWAY - an exhibition of works by the artists of ArtBrut Gallery and Studio
We cordially invite you to the Beyond Taboo IV. Castaway – an exhibition of works by the artists of ArtBrut Gallery and Studio:
Damian Czerwiński, Dariusz Dera, Joanna Golachowska, Marcin Guźla, Piotr Jeruzel, Agnieszka Kołodziejczyk, Jacek Kröle, Kamil Łyjak, Marta Nawojczyk, Andrzej Niedźwiecki, Bartosz Runiewski, Piotr Rymko, Daniel Stachowski, Wanda Sidorowicz, Krzysztof Tarnowski, Mateusz Tatarczyk, Maciej Tryniszewski, Elwira Zacharska
Opens: Thursday, 7 December 2017, 5:00 P.M.
ArtBrut Gallery
Studio For Social & Cultural Inclusion
46a Ruska St., Wrocław
Artistic Mentor: Jacek Zachodny
Beyond Taboo IV. Castaway
The pattern of persecuting ‘others’ is continuously repeated in world history: national minorities, people who are different, those who feel and think differently, people of different appearance, those who follow another religion, people immersed in a different culture. In the history of civilization, this involved – depending on the times, tendencies of the era or religious influences – many groups of ‘others’. Among them there were people with disabilities, the sick, people with defects or ‘supernatural’ abilities, heretics, many indigenous peoples like Indians, Inuit or Aborigines; the entirety of Africa, Jews, Roma, peasants, people of unconventional sexual orientation, immigrants – all were subject to persecution.
The theme of the current edition of the Beyond Taboo exhibition is also a reflection of the situation of people with disabilities in various cultures, religions and societies. This is a call to ask how we feel in our culture, to what extent it allows us to be ourselves, what do we think of others, what are our preconceptions, and what in the culture is limiting us. Can anything that is considered normal to us, be forbidden and unacceptable elsewhere? Can we find similar areas in our own culture? What is the attitude of people in different cultures to people with disabilities, how are they perceived? How do we see people from our immediate environment, from within our own culture? What traditional, cultural and religious constraints do the disabled face? Does the attitude to disability result exclusively from economics or from the consciousness of a given society or group?
When preparing the exhibition, our artists discussed the situation of people with disabilities in the Britain of the Victorian era as well as – using the example of Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist – they examined the hardships of people living in the times of the industrial revolution. Moreover conversations and discussions dealt with such issues as mutual understanding, the fate of the mentally handicapped, medieval times, the persecution of witches, rare illnesses such as porphyria, elimination of the disabled by the Nazis, and the fate of contemporary immigrants.