For a long time, the countryside was not within the field of interest of contemporary art. The artists tended to focus primarily on cities, globalisation and new technologies. However, in recent years, there has been a clear shift toward localness, landscape and experiences connected with life outside major urban centres. It is not, however, about the return to idyllic images or romantic visions of a lost world. Contemporary artists are rather interested in the countryside as a space of memory, labour, social tensions and constant change.
This approach is adopted in the exhibition All the Diamonds, organised by Krupa Art Foundation in Wrocław in collaboration with the Sandwich Gallery from Bucharest. The project is based on the dialogue between Poland and Romania — countries connected not only through their geography and the presence of the Carpathians, but also through similar historical experiences, artisan traditions, and a shared memory of the world existing outside large urban centres.
The curators suggest that the eponymous diamonds should be interpreted as stars floating above the landscape. They look from a distance at the ongoing processes between humankind and nature, between tradition and modernity. It is a perspective that allows one to observe both change and continuity, which are two phenomena ever-present in the exhibition. Yet the diamonds can also be understood as metaphors of what had long remained invisible. A diamond does not come into being instantly — it requires time and patience, much like the experiences, stories and relationships that emerge outside major cultural centres. The exhibition presents the countryside as a place where values often overlooked by dominant narratives — local knowledge, a sense of community, memory, and the ability to cooperate — prove invaluable and become the true “diamonds”.
A diamond does not come into being instantly — it requires time and patience, much like the experiences, stories and relationships that emerge outside major cultural centres.
Complexity of the Countryside
The exhibition is structured around three intertwined narratives. The first one concerns the image of the countryside. It is a realm of myths, symbols and stereotypes which, for many years, have shaped the way we think about the provinces. Here, the countryside appears as a cultural construct, a collection of images that often exist mostly in the collective imagination rather than in reality.
The second part of the exhibition focuses on the theme of longing. Yet this is not nostalgia for a specific place or experience, but a desire to return to one’s roots, which often remain unknown to us. Here, the countryside becomes a space of inherited memory: a place that is lost, yet at the same time imagined.
As a result, All the Diamonds does not idealise rurality but presents it as a realm of complex social, economic and cultural relationships that require time, presence and commitment.
The third perspective is connected with the idea of post-seasonality. Instead of looking at the countryside through the prism of folklore, festivities or tourist attractions, the exhibition focuses on the daily functioning of the community. In this context, post-seasonality implies viewing the countryside as a place of constant labour, care and interdependence. It is the reality that exists all year round, regardless of whether outsiders pay any attention to it.
As a result, All the Diamonds does not idealise rurality but presents it as a realm of complex social, economic and cultural relationships that require time, presence and commitment.
Matter and Labour
Materials obtained directly from the rural landscape play a significant role in the exhibition. Wood, grain, straw or parts of farm machinery become not only artistic materials, but also vessels of memory.
Julia Ciunowicz uses grass, grain and traditional weaving techniques to create three-dimensional forms that lie somewhere between sculpture and handicraft. Her organically shaped works illustrate how the traditional ways of working with materials can function within the contemporary language of art. The artist personally collects and prepares the fibres she uses, following traditional methods of harvesting and processing weaving plants. Besides the commonly recognised linen, she also uses nettles, plantain and other wild plants, which were used on old rural farms as a cheap and easily accessible raw material.
Straw also appears in the works of Ala Savashevich. The female figures created using the laborious technique of straw marquetry recall traditional forms of work and celebration. The artist refers to both the rhythm of the human body and the cycle of farm work, whose symbolic culmination is the harvest festival. The faceless figures represent something more than a single individual and become a universal construct.
Yet, the countryside is more than just the fruits of the earth. Daniel Rycharski, an artist from the Mazovian village of Kurówko, employs elements such as parts of agricultural machinery in his practice. His projects transform these tools of labour, stripping them of their practical functions and turning them into symbols of the changes taking place in the Polish countryside. In his works, Rycharski plays with stereotypes about rural Poland and highlights current social issues.
Anna Raczyńska approaches rural traditions from a different perspective. In her work, a euro symbol made from straw and dried flowers evokes a harvest wreath, bringing together two seemingly distant realms: the contemporary economy and traditional rituals associated with farm work. The outcome is an artwork that speaks to both community values and the impact of global economic processes on local communities.
Questions of labour reappear in Raczyńska’s exploration of the female body and care work. In Soft Burden, Hard Shell: Bearing Weight Beyond the Body (2025), the artist has designed a metal corset for pregnant women. Decorated with fern motifs, the structure resembles both protective armour and a delicate ornament. Its accompanying film, documenting the process of putting on the garment, highlights the physical labour involved, whilst addressing themes of care, sisterhood and responsibility. Motherhood is not depicted here as a purely private experience, but as part of a wider network of social relationships.
Enduring Presence
The themes of femininity and the continuity of experience also echo in Delia Popa’s work, Venus Vidra (2025). The sculpture references a Neolithic artefact discovered in the Romanian region of Vidra, where the artist’s studio is currently located. The original object, estimated to date from approximately 5000 BCE, is only a few centimetres tall and has the form of a vessel resembling a woman’s torso. Popa does not, however, reconstruct this historical find. She is rather interested in the continuity of particular symbols and ideas that can last for thousands of years. Her work reminds us that the relationship between humans and the earth, fertility, care and the rhythm of nature has significantly deeper roots than contemporary notions of rural life.
The relationship between memory and the contemporary world is further explored in the works of Zofia Rydet and Honorata Martin. Rydet’s Sociological Record (1978-1990) remains one of the most important photographic portraits of the Polish countryside today. By photographing local residents in their homes, the artist has created an extraordinary archive of everyday life, where interiors, objects and family heirlooms play an equally important role as the people themselves. It is a record of a world situated between tradition and impending social changes.
Decades later, Honorata Martin raises a similar question regarding the experience of life outside the big-city centre. In her project Going out into Poland (2013), the artist traverses the country on foot, staying overnight with people she meets by chance and documenting her encounters, landscapes and everyday situations. If Rydet’s photographs are a portrait of the countryside of the past, Martin’s works depict its contemporary face — less grounded in traditional structures, yet still shaped by relationships, hospitality and local communities. Together, they tell a story of continuity of experiences that, despite social and economic changes, remain an important part of life outside major urban centres.
The Countryside as the Future
All the Diamonds does not offer a nostalgic return to the past; nor does it set the countryside against the city, just as tradition is not set against modernity. Instead, the exhibition suggests that places outside major urban centres can provide a unique perspective from which to reconsider some of the most pressing questions of the present. How do communities sustain themselves over time? How is knowledge transmitted across generations? How to create more sustainable models of work and production? And how can we build more reciprocal relationships with the environment?
This is why the exhibition ultimately concerns more than just Poland and Romania. Landscape, local materials, craftsmanship and family stories all become tools for reflecting on memory, care, belonging and interdependence. The exhibition shows that the countryside is not merely a periphery, but a place where social, ecological and economic processes become particularly visible.
All the Diamonds does not offer a nostalgic return to the past; nor does it set the countryside against the city, just as tradition is not set against modernity. Instead, the exhibition suggests that places outside major urban centres can provide a unique perspective from which to reconsider some of the most pressing questions of the present.
Just like the eponymous diamonds high above the ground, All the Diamonds invites the viewers to look at these processes from a certain distance. From this vantage point, the distinction between centre and periphery begins to lose clarity, revealing that what we often dismiss as marginal can offer a valuable lens through which to understand the contemporary world.
All the Diamonds
16.05–29.06.2026
Krupa Art Gallery
Rynek 27/28, Wrocław
