Krzysztof Marchlak
Curator: Agnieszka Gołębiewska
Life is a mystery
Everyone must stand alone
I hear you call my name
And it feels like home
(Madonna, Like a Prayer)
Under the volcano of the Neapolitan paradise, everything melts like lava cake, enveloped in Vesuvian smoke.
Adam and Eve, separated, alone in the flames, already feel that this paradise is not going to work. Everything melts, sprinkled with glitter.
The promised paradise has failed. Who promised it to us? Who believed in it?
Who said that there was only one?
So we make our own paradises and portraits: of heroes and heroines, knights and kings from our crusades, in the classical format of old portraits. A hagiography of beautiful, proud and brave people.
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There is a lot of truth under glitter. Thoughts, life, and sometimes also tears. Paradoxically, you have to put some over yourself to be really yourself.
We affirm the body, but not for corporeal vanity. The body is a field where many battles are fought. Some oppressively want to order you to do things – others are battles for yourself. So we’re going to extend this battle zone to include beauty, peace and self-celebration.
Krzysztof Marchlak shows the magical uniqueness of every human being in these portraits.
In the golden light, the intense gaze immersed in timelessness seeks your eyes.
Glitter is included here. You can sprinkle some over yourself.
“My face expresses a lot. It is tired and serious, full of conceptions. I want it to be mine. I want to take possession of it, to tame it, to subdue its wildness and to extinguish all its wars. There are no more wars in my world – they have been defeated. Finally, my images belongs to me and only to me! It is truly fairy tale-like and ephemerally concrete. It is sorrounded by an aura so delicate in colour that only a few can see it. Sometimes I do not even see it in the mirror image myself”
(Krzysztof Marchlak, I would give you my heart. Krakow 2020).
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