Kasia Fudakowski is a Berlin-based artist whose diverse practice spans sculpture, film, performance, and writing. Born in London in 1985, Fudakowski studied at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art at Oxford University, where she graduated in 2006. She subsequently relocated to Berlin, where she explores the absurdities of social and political systems through surreal logic, comic theory, and material encounters. Her art is often humorous with a darker edge, blending comedy with tragedy, and raising questions about cultural norms and our society’s definitions of success and failure.
Fudakowski’s latest exhibition “Wystawa Limitowana”, which opens its door at BWA Wrocław on 29th November, explores the complex relationship between power, energy, and culture. Being her first institutional solo show in Poland, the exhibition invites visitors to engage with a series of kinetic sculptures powered by motors and lights. By switching the sculptures on, viewers are introduced to both contemporary and historical narratives surrounding the concept of power. However, there’s a twist: the exhibition has an energy limit, where when it’s reached, the sculptures will no longer be able to be activated. With each activation, the sculptures deplete the total limited energy supply, making the exhibition a sort of social experiment whose result cannot be entirely predicted.
We spoke with Kasia Fudakowski and the exhibition’s curator Mika Drozdowska to discuss the themes and concepts behind the show, as well as what visitors can look forward to experiencing.
Aleksandra Mainka-Pawlowska: What inspired you to create this exhibition, and how did Barry Lord’s book Art and Energy influence your creative process?
Kasia Fudakowski: I’ve long been interested in the idea of limits and how they can obviously be restrictive, but also enable surprising moments of elasticity, resourcefulness and change. Restricting or losing something, be that a freedom, an ability, a relationship or a sense of security, brings it into focus, where it might have been taken for granted before. In mid 2022, when I was planning this exhibition, the precarious nature of Germany’s reliance on Russian power (in terms of imported fossil fuels) was suddenly brought into sharp focus with the invasion of Ukraine. Energy resources and who has access to and control over them play a large part in this, and probably all conflicts, and with the current knock on effect of cheap access to gas and electricity being suddenly restricted, an aspect of the impact of this ‘foreign’ war was brought closer to home.
In the same year I turned 37 years old and realised I was expending increasing amounts of energy thinking about reproduction; what it would mean physically, psychologically, socially, politically, and artistically and whether it was the right decision for me. I worriedly watched reproductive freedoms being curtailed around the world against a backdrop of my own dwindling fertility and began also to see this potential to reproduce in terms of a relationship between power and energy
I found these two, initially divergent topics were deftly brought together in Barry Lord’s book which presents a compelling argument for how culture is intrinsically formed by the type of energy source exploited to create it. His account traces the parallels between human cultural evolution and changing energy sources: beginning with the human body’s intrinsic capacity to metabolise, move and reproduce which enabled a growing population and cognitive understanding, followed by the exploitation of animal power which lead to agriculture, then the combination of slave and wind power which lead to colonialism, through the combustion of fossil fuels leading to the Industrial Revolution and the culture it brought with it and finally the cultural upheaval developing now in response to the climate crisis and the necessary transition to renewable energy.
Restricting or losing something, be that a freedom, an ability, a relationship or a sense of security, brings it into focus, where it might have been taken for granted before. – Kasia Fudakowski
AMP: Each sculpture references a different story or event. Can you tell us more about those stories? Do they share a common theme?
Mika Drozdowska: The sculptures presented in the exhibition refer to different stories and events, both past and present, creating a web of narratives that can be interpreted in the context of power, energy, and culture. Each piece relates to a different tale, but they all share one main theme—the dynamics of control, both on the individual level and within larger social, political, and historical structures.
One example is a piece inspired by the painting The Poisoning of Queen Bona by Jan Matejko, which refers to a pivotal moment in Polish history. In her work The Black Legend of Queen Bona, Kasia Fudakowski directly references the painting, depicting the dramatic scene where Queen Bona Sforza sits on a throne surrounded by wealth, about to take a cup of poison. The poison symbolizes the inevitable end of her reign, and this moment resembles the switch of a lamp, whose activation determines the end of her power.
Another interesting example is the work The Show Must Go On and Off and On and Off…, which raises critical questions about the role of sexual energy as a fundamental form of energy in the context of women’s history and the importance of collaboration among women in shaping collective consciousness of time, related to menstrual cycles and childbirth. In a society where women were expected to fulfill the role of mother and caretaker, collaboration could be both a source of strength and a tool for control.
All of these narratives are also connected through Barry Lord’s book Art & Energy, which was a major inspiration for the exhibition. Lord emphasizes that culture and art are inextricably linked to the resources available on Earth. Changes in the way energy is sourced—from muscle power, to fossil fuels, to renewable energy—directly affect the way societies are organized and power structures are formed. This book provides an essential context for the entire exhibition, helping to understand how energy and political processes alter our perception of art, history, and the very space of the gallery.
Fudakowski’s work questions the inevitability of the fall of power, where a small change, such as turning a light on or off, can decide the fate of not just individuals but entire dynasties.
— Mika Drozdowska
AMP: The exhibition is limited by the amount of available energy, which run out at some point, causing the sculptures to stop working. Will the exhibition remain open to visitors after the energy is depleted? How do you think this time limit will affect how viewers perceive the exhibition?
MD: Kasia Fudakowski’s Wystawa Limitowana raises a question for visitors about the boundaries of available resources and their impact on the experience of art. When the energy runs out and the sculptures stop working, the exhibition will become a space for contemplation, where visitors can share their reflections on their interactions with the works and consider the relationship between energy, power, and responsibility.
The limitation of resources strengthens the artistic message, adding a dimension of transience and impermanence to the exhibition. This element may encourage viewers to adopt a greater sense of mindfulness and humility, especially in contrast to the natural desire to experience the works in their full capacity.
Ultimately, the depletion of energy deepens the experience, illustrating that art—just like energy—is not an unlimited resource, and every action has consequences. Even when the sculptures stop functioning, there will remain the impression that the exhibition was more than just a display—it was an interactive experiment, whose outcome could be predicted but could not be guaranteed, prompting reflection on how resources shape our reality and our responsibility towards the world.
When the energy runs out and the sculptures stop working, the exhibition will become a space for contemplation, where visitors can share their reflections on their interactions with the works and consider the relationship between energy, power, and responsibility.
— Mika Drozdowska
AMP: What do you hope visitors will reflect on when interacting with the sculptures—specifically when they make decisions about whether to activate the artwork? Do you think they will be mindful of future visitors, or maybe they’ll take advantage of the energy while it’s available?
KF: I think of every exhibition as an experiment – a unique opportunity to present an object, an idea or a scenario to an audience, and see how they respond. I’m not, however, looking for a specific response – I’m just very curious to see how visitors both do and don’t interact with the work. There is a hierarchy implicit in any exhibition: to a certain extent, the artist creates and controls the parameters of the visitors experience, and I wanted to play with this a bit, to abdicate some ‘cultural’ power to the audience and ‘personal’ power to my father (who is in solely control of the most power-hungry element of the exhibition). The fact that the exhibition might be left literally powerless for more than half of its duration is an exciting, risky and funny potential scenario which motivates me. Failure is always more interesting than success!
AMP: One of the objects, Out of Your Hands, uses more energy than the rest of the sculptures and is controlled by an external mechanism. Can you tell us more about its meaning?
MD: Out of Your Hands is a key piece in the exhibition because it directly addresses issues of control, autonomy, and dependence on technology and energy. The use of a theater spotlight from 1985, the year the artist was born, has a symbolic dimension—it connects the past with the present and emphasizes the physical power of energy, which not only illuminates but also regulates the space we occupy.
This piece is unique because it consumes significantly more energy than the other sculptures and is also remotely controlled by the artist’s father, adding a dimension of oversight and external intervention in the creative process. The title Out of Your Hands suggests that what seems to be within our grasp—in this case, control over light—is often actually dependent on forces beyond our reach. The artist thus explores the illusion of individual autonomy, where decisions and actions are constrained by corporate, political, and historical mechanisms.
The work invites reflection on how control over energy, technology, and space affects our sense of freedom and responsibility. At the same time, it raises the question of who truly governs the space of art and how our daily lives are inextricably linked to external mechanisms that shape our reality.
AMP: Can you walk us through your artistic process? How did you choose your medium and materials, and how did they influence the final outcome?
KF: My interest in anything and everything is aroused if I find it funny. A joke only works when it contains a truth, and our response to that truth is often deeply revealing (and not always flattering) about how we think. In terms of process sometimes a particular material comes first and I try to work out what it can and can’t do and then its meaning is revealed to me later in the process, and sometimes it’s the idea which comes first and I think through which material or medium would best serve to communicate it. The final result is always a symbiosis of material, format and content, not forgetting the personal, political, physical and social parameters in which it was created.
A joke only works when it contains a truth, and our response to that truth is often deeply revealing (and not always flattering) about how we think.
— Kasia Fudakowski
Wystawa Limitowana by Kasia Fudakowski
SiC! Gallery: 9-10 Kościuszki Sq., 50-028 Wrocław
Start of the event: November 29, 2024
End of the event: February 16, 2025
