Agata Kus – Alex Urban
Curator: Agnieszka Gołębiewska
November. Isn’t it the most Polish month?Bonfires are flickering out with low wisps of smoke in the gardens and allotments. The last daredevils are still barbecuing, but they already know: it’s a vain hope, winter is near. The colours and euphoria of December’s holidays seem to be a long way off. Halloween accessories, witches’ hats and capes, are on sale in stores; they can come
in handy again. Everything begins with All Souls Day, or the Day of the Dead.
It turns into riots on Independence Day. A time of reflection and rioting.
Young girls in search of thrills gather for St. Andrew’s Eve fortune-telling; its male counterpart is St. Catherine’s Eve, a forgotten tradition for virtuous bachelors looking for wives.Single girls peel apples and pour molten wax.
And what do bachelors do? Who knows.
So let’s have our fortunes read.
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What if a wedding lies ahead? Or what if it doesn’t, because girls are killing it on their own: now grappling in combat on bare ground, now looking us straight in the eye with a black drop of evil in the corner of their ironically smiling mouths. They dry flowers, trying to preserve their beauty. Today’s pink-haired witches are modern independent women, caught in a moment’s reverie at the bar counter; they don’t need the company of bachelors. Girl Scouts hold open-air parties for themselves.Poland, as Maria Janion writes in Uncanny Slavdom, is ‘east of the West and west of the East’. We continue to search for spirituality in secular rituals with pagan roots: between Halloween, All Souls’ Day and
St. Andrew’s Eve, the need for a little magic still flickers in us. Agata Kus and Alex Urban wanted to meet at this particular time. Are they going to tell our fortunes? Rather they will bring mysterious, magical objects.Explosive phosphorescent dachshunds, a devil blowing bubbles from pink chewing gum, a ceramic Satan-goat and a charred pizza. It’s an ironic take on All Souls’ Day, filtered through black humour. Unless you like being afraid. For the great actress in her coffin outfit still looks alive and Kubrick’s little sisters with black faces in their pink girls’ room are both scary and funny.
There is nothing better for November sorrows.
Come!
See artist Agata Kus >
See artist Alex Urban >
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