Magdalena Lazar – born ‘86, in Poland, lives and works in Cracow. Her practice consists in a deep interest both in human motivations for creating inventions and pushing the world forward and in an incessant sense of ‘future shock’, or too many changes in too short a time. An archaeology of the present, failed prognoses and utopian vision as well as initiatives related to post-growth are her main area of interest. The fact that she has Silesian roots is certainly not without significance. A region, which had once supposed to be a symbol of progress, was undergoing a deep crisis as she was growing up.She works with multiple media including animation, video, photography, installation and object. Magdalena Lazar gives a visual form to true stories which appear to be fictions and construct fictions on the basis of her intuition, delving into what sociologists term a horizon of the future.
She has exhibited in MeetFactory (Prague, CZ), Exgirlfriend Gallery (Berlin, DE), Chongqing Dimensions Art Centre (DAC, China), Limited Access 7 (Teheran, Iran), Bunker Gallery, MNK, MoCAK and Cricoteka ( Cracow, PL).
Broad Daylight All Night
Methods employed in the context of my work trace their pedigree to the art of the 1960s. I re-capture stylistics surrounding us on an everyday basis from 3D visualisation (e.g. developers’ paradise billboards, which usually are futile promises) or from food photography. Furthermore, I refer to the notion of post-growth. An aspect I consider essential in the context of post-growth is the possibility of sharing and multiplying goods outside of the regime of economic exploitation. I believe that a retar-ded future, retardation, can become the solution to crucial issues of global dimension. My presumption is that arriving at this point leads through an acceptance of solutions that are currently considered absurd.
SOMETHING REMAINED
2013
The installation entitiled Something Remained was inspired by the story of the electrician Allan Cavinder. Just after the war between the Turks and Greeks, he was asked to repair the air-conditioning system in a hotel in the deslolate city of Varosha –previously a vibrant tourist destination. Cavinder walked the city’s streets alone, searching for fragments of the old system in the sands, that would be a testimony of the city’s former glory. In the hotel halls he steped through sand dunes. He was alone, surrounded by silence. This silence, as he later described in a letter to his wife, made his ears hurt.
One walked into a darkened room. There was sand underfoot. Only after a while did the light turn on. The ventilators were provided by a motion sensor.
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Laboratory of Living Sentiments -
Laboratory of Living Sentiments -
Laboratory of Living Sentiments -
LABORATORY OF LIVING SENTIMENTS
Video installation Laboratory of Living Sentiments is a three-channel work at a juncture of video and animation. It concerns a love story which pushed a then young girl towards an extraordinary experiment. A white rose, received from her beloved, has been perpetuated in such a manner that it can never fade. The author of the experiment says: “I didn’t want to dry it, I like living sentiments.” And goes on to provide a simple recipe for a chemical potion, with which an object is to be suffused. The incredible, yet true story provokes an avalanche of questions related to passing, the end of particular stages of biological like and our desire to preserve them.
The installation is a part of a PhD project “Broad Daylight, All Night” / Pedagogical University of Cracow, Art Department
MeetFactory, Prague, CZ
Curator: Zosia Malysa
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SILVER-WHITE INHALE / COBALT EXHALE -
SILVER-WHITE INHALE / COBALT EXHALE -
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SILVER-WHITE INHALE / COBALT EXHALE -
SILVER-WHITE INHALE / COBALT EXHALE -
SILVER-WHITE INHALE / COBALT EXHALE
SILVER-WHITE INHALE / COBALT EXHALE
On the exhibition we present prototypes – a serotonin lamp constructed by dr. Agata Kołodziejczyk for the European Space Agency and a material made of a scoby bacterial colony (kombucha) which in the future will replace plastic, paper, textiles and is resistant to cosmic rays.
Art Agenda Nova 2019
photo by Martyna Szulakiewicz
the photos come from the Art Agenda Nova archive and the Wschód Sztuki Foundation
VENUS
Internet applications feed on the idealist slogan of ‘sharing’. Despite their use of the altruist semantics, in lieu of the sharing economy, these profitable platforms by and large employ the taking economy. On top of this, their financial gains are masked by people’s longings in an era of promulgated self-sufficiency. In response to the phenomenon, community-centred resistance movements have emerged: sharing one’s time (skills), food, resources, communal house construction. DIY tendencies are becoming increasingly more apparent. They frequently take the form of utopian projects such as the Venus Project, aiming to replace the monetary system with an equal and sustainable access to resources. These are but few thick networks of mutual interdependencies which strive to enrich our existence.
Animation inspired by the activity of Jacque Fresco. He directed the Venus Project and advocated global implementation of a socioeconomic system which he referred to as a „resource-based economy”.
Magdalena Lazar – direction, voice, color correction, Grzegorz Milewski – 3D animation, rendering, 4’05’’, 2017
# beautypost
The silver form is made of metal, recalling the spectrum of an alarm siren. The cylindrical object is a visualisation of sound propagating. Condensed into a small, jewellery-like sculpture, it seems to be seductive, rather than disquieting or alarming. Its overbearing sound has been reduced to a visual representation, an aesthetised object, bereft of enlivening power. Situated on a transparent object, it is reflected in a mirror pane. The only unsettling elements are a few hairs unswept from the nearperfect compositions of zero granularity.
Photos > Krzysztof Szewczyk
90 x 60 x 20cm
2017
