Agnieszka Brzeżańska, Untitled, 2015, ceramics, 30 x 30 x 35 cm, courtesy of the artist, eastcontemporary and BWA Warszawa
The notion of fluidity and liquidness has been explored in cultural, social and political theory over the last decade. “So remember the liquid ground” writes Luce Irigaray in the ‘Marine Lover of Friedrich Nietzsche’. For Irigaray, the eponymous ‘liquid ground’ means water, which, however, is understood as something more than just the liquid substance. Water is a site of possibilities and a force of differentiation. A powerful medium animating and connecting all watery bodies, human and non-human, from the depths of seas and oceans to our homes and bodies within our bodies.
‘From watery womb to watery world: we are bodies of water’ – both embodied, with all cultural implications, and comprising water, mostly in the context of biology and ecology. Water is not just something out there, a resource or commodity. It is our own materiality. Through hydrological cycles and movements, water connects all bodies across different times and spaces, and such flow might be seen as a logic of connection or communication, which extends beyond the human into a more expansive sense of ‘we’. A sense, which indeed permeates the work of Agnieszka Brzeżańska (born 1972, Gdańsk), a Polish visual artist, herbalist and sailor.
Immersed in the mystical and otherworldly dimension, the exhibition ‘So remember the liquid ground’ presents a series of Brzeżańska’s ceramics, textile works and paintings mostly inspired by the water’s historical, social, cultural, and ecological significance. Here, the concept of water becomes life’s matter and matrix, mother and medium. An endless reservoir of symbols, myths and metaphors. […]
Excerpt from the Introduction by Agniszka Fąferek and Julia Korzycka
The exhibition was organized under the patronage and the support of the Consulate General of Poland in Milan and the Polish Institute in Rome.
BIOGRAPHY:
Agnieszka Brzeżańska’s work explores elusive links between various natural forces and life forms on Earth, which she perceives as Gaia, a living organism. In this, she uses various registers of knowledge, from physics and philosophy to systems of cognition marginalized by modern science, such as alchemy, parapsychology, esotericism, native knowledge or matriarchal traditions. She is also interested in contemporary ecological practices. She is an author of paintings, drawings, films, photographs and ceramics. Since 2016, together with artist Ewa Ciepielewska, she has been organizing a mobile artistic residency on water under the title ”FLOW/PRZEPŁYW.”
Agnieszka Brzeżańska studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk (1992–1995) and later in Warsaw (1995–1997), as well as at the Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music (1998–2001). Received scholarships from the DAAD (Berlin, 2008–2009), the Collegium Helvetic- um (Zurich/ETH, 2004), the Büchsenhausen (Innsbruck, 2005), and the Japanese government (1998–2001, Tokyo).
Her works have been presented in numerous solo exhibitions, such as “World National Park” at Królikarnia The National Museum, (Warsaw 2019/2020), “Matrix-Sratrix,” Kasia Michalski (Warsaw, 2016), “Ma Terra,” Vera Munro (Hamburg, 2015–2016), “This All Occurs Quickly, With Ease, Grace and Joy,” Marlborough Contemporary (London, 2015), “Ziemia rodzinna/Ma Terra,” Contemporary Museum Wrocław (Wrocław, 2014), “Kobayashi Maru,” Nanzuka (Tokyo, 2014), “A Painting Cycle,” Nomas Foundation (Rome, 2012), “Back to the Garden,” Galerie Kamm (Berlin, 2012), “Cosmic Equation,” Kunsthaus Baselland (Basel, 2010), “Galactic Resonance,” Hotel (London, 2010), “Playlist,” DAAD Galerie (Berlin, 2010), as well as group exhibitions, including “Emma Kunz Cosmos Aargauer Kunsthaus, (Aarau 2021), “Biennale Gherdeina,” (Ortisei 2020), “The Penumbral Age. Art in the Time of Planetary Change”, Museum of Modern Art, (Warsaw 2020), “Volcano Extravaganza”, (Stromboli 2019), “Cosmological Arrows,” Bonniers Konsthall (Stockholm, 2019), “Paint, Also Known As Blood. Women, Affect, and Desire in Contemporary Painting,” Museum of Modern Art (Warsaw, 2019), “Celebration”, Kyoto Art Center, (Kyoto 2019), “Pangea United” Muzeum Sztuki (Łódź, 2019), “How to Talk With Birds, Trees, Fish, Shells, Snakes, Bulls and Lions,” Hamburger Bahnhof (Berlin, 2018), “Goddesses,” BWA Warszawa (Warsaw, 2018). In 2018, she participated in the 10th edition of the Berlin Biennale. Later that year, she received the main prize from the ING Polish Art Foundation during the Warsaw Gallery Weekend. Represented by BWA Warszawa (Warsaw) and NANZUKA (Tokyo).