An accompanying event to the exhibition BEYOND TABOO VII. ANXIETY AND FEAR
When: Thursday 18 December 2020
Where: www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rmog_POZ4k
Due to the epidemic situation, we were once again forced to move the Accompanying Event of the Exhibition BEYOND TABOO VII. ANXIETY AND FEAR to the virtual reality. The event referred to the anxiety and fear in the title, to which the artists associated with the ArtBrut Gallery & Studio alluded in their works. In particular, it also referred to the texts displayed at the exhibition.
The meeting was hosted by Olga Szelc – editor and critic, who talked to the artistic mentors of the exhibition: Dominika Łabądź – a visual artist, curator, producer and artistic mentor of exhibition and Jacek Zachodny – a visual artist, writer, initiator and artistic mentor of the BEYOND TABOO exhibition series at the ArtBrut Gallery & Studio.
The conversation also included readings of poetic and literary texts by Wanda Sidorowicz, Andrzej Niedźwiecki and Elwira Zacharska, as well as an excerpt from an interview with the artists and their parents, carried out specially for the exhibition by journalist Katarzyna Kaczorowska.
Based on the texts read by Olga Szelc, who moderated the meeting, as well as on the works exhibited in the ArtBrut Gallery & Studio, the interviewees confronted the subject of pandemics, climate catastrophe, the pitfalls of globalisation and the excessive acceleration of humanity on its way to extinction. In this context, various aspects of fear and anxiety, which have always been the companions of human beings, were discussed: through rebellion, opposition to bans and a strong need for independence, a sense of incomprehension and rejection, to the search for ways of dealing with difficult reality and methods for expressing usually hidden emotions and reflections. We talked about how important it is to go "beyond taboos" and name one's own demons (that is, that fear and anxiety, fright and obsession), about the rescuing power of the community, which is undoubtedly the community of the ArtBrut Gallery & Studio, about mutual exchange, inspiration and the power of art, if it is created out of an authentic desire to express oneself and describe the world.
For we may be afraid, but still remain creative.