I’m in and I’m out
Take out a loan
Swallow it hard
I’m in a sense
And then I’m not
Inhaling this time
Do you at times?
Tymczas / Thistime is an exhibition summing up the activity of Poznań-based Sandra Gallery in 2019. Operating as a nomadic agency without regular premises, the Gallery cooperates with, supports and brings together young artists associated with Poznań (students and recent alumni of the University of Arts in Poznań). They are artists at the beginning of their artistic path, using various strategies and aesthetics. The beginnings of Sandra go back to 2008, when it was launched by Dominika Olszowy. From the very start it was ephemeral and elusive, avoiding any pigeonholing. Between 2008-2015, there were five pop-up Gallery exhibitions.
After a few years’ hibernation, in 2019 the curatorial team: Magdalena Adameczek, Tomek Pawłowski Jarmołajew and Ola Polerowicz resurrected Sandra and let it turn over a new leaf. Last year’s programme included guest projects of performative, exhibition and process character. They were prepared in cooperation with organisations, institutions and project spaces across Poland. It started with a one-day “Foreplay” at the Poznań Łęctwo and Luka galleries. A moment later Sandra did the “Handjob” show at the Widna Gallery as part of CRACOW ART WEEK | KRAKERS 2019. Then it reappeared in Poznań, where it was basking in the May sun at the “Sundrise” at the Artelier Artel, and after a small “Exoneration” it set out for a longer trip. In June, the Sandra Gallery stopped over at the Zielona Góra Salony Foundation, transforming it into a temporary gym – “A Room in Motion”. Towards the end of summer, it shed tears over climate change in Warsaw’s lokal_30 during the ritualistic “August”, only to practice “Empathy” during the Festival of Four Cultures in Łódź, and finally to set the trends of “Sports Elegance” in Szczecin’s 17 Stalingrad Defenders Gallery.
The artists cooperating within the Sandra Gallery do not form a regular group or a current with distinct features, style or a coherent idea. Regardless of individual attitudes and strategies, oftentimes divergent, the common denominator is to strengthen women’s voices and perspectives, creating a safe space for cooperation, free expression and self-determination. However, Sandra’s support for its artists is temporary.
The exhibition, the last show of the Sandra Gallery with a particular set of artists, will address the questions of temporariness, dispersion and uncertainty which, although accompanying it from the beginning, have been intensified by the current pandemic and climate crisis. Sandra’s ephemeral and working character is largely due to the precarious conditions in the world of art and the experience of late capitalist fragmentation of reality. This situation significantly affects the work of young artists; it determines specific techniques, materials and strategies, usually low-budget productions with high self-exploitation potential. Institutional independence, the core of this initiative, at the same time gives limited opportunities for development due to the lack of its own budget and space. However, the conditions in which it is impossible to engage in the creative process in the long term open the way for temporary relationships, alliances and temporary outbursts of enthusiasm. From thistime to thattime.
The current situation is beginning to transform the status of artists and the culture sector employees from difficult to impossible. We ask the question: “Production or survival?”, but will we survive without producing an exhibition that gives us temporary work? We accept gigs. It is a temporary junk time in the world of art – but it’s always something. For the time being. In the face of grim outlooks for the future and many questions about the sense of doing art now, we do create, act and do our business “as usual”. Because that’s what we can do. Though we don’t have much, our imagination powers are great. Does anyone need what we do? The arts residency will be based on the formula of an open studio and exhibition-in-process. The Ambassadors of the Sandra Gallery will carry out on-site spatial and exhibition experiments, performative activities, exploring the possibilities of encounters in the new reality, requiring adaptation to the constraints imposed by the pandemic. Works created in the course of the residency will gradually grow, take on temporary forms and locations, gradually filling the exhibition rooms. This will build up an exhibition that will materialize in the form of 4 stages. The process and results of the residency will be traceable on an ongoing basis via social media.
Apart from newly created works, the exhibition will also include historical works of the Sandra Gallery from its activities in 2019. The opening of the exhibition will also be accompanied by the launch of the Gallery’s website, containing the artists’ biographies and portfolios, documentation of Sandra’s exhibitions, texts, and publications. In this way, the existing temporary situations will be recorded in virtual space, at least for the time being.
artists: ATM 4K (Antkowiak, Pataridze, Pawelczyk, Szypulska), Natalia Karczewska, Karolina Mądrzecka, Maryna Sakowska, Lena Lubińska, Dominika Święcicka, Anna Adamowicz, Katarzyna Wojtczak, Justyna Dziabaszewska, Ula Lucińska, Julia Taszycka, Iwetta Tomaszewska, Paulina Piórkowska, Cristina Ferreira, Martyna Hadyńska, Ana Barata Martins
curators: Magdalena Adameczek, Tomek Pawłowski Jarmołajew, Ola Polerowicz
fot. How much is your art?, ATM 4K (Antkowiak, Pataridze, Pawelczyk, Szypulska)
