All posts tagged: Łódzkie Centrum Wydarzeń

“Nostalgia” Brings Floriculture to the Tram Stop in Łódź, Poland.

“Nostalgia” Brings Floriculture to the Tram Stop in Łódź, Poland.

Last night we listened to artist Futura speak with Timothy Anne Burnside at the “Beyond the Streets” about his initial impetus for hitting the streets as a teenage graffiti writer in the late 1960s in New York – an urban environment he described aptly as “the city was on fire”.

“I wanted to express myself,” he said. “That’s all anyone wants to do, no matter how they do it.”

Dominika Cebula. “Nostalgia”. Lodzkie Centrum Wydarzen. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

As we move further from graffiti and mark-making in public art-making, is it a revelation that the desire to be seen, to have your voice heard, is the common denominator again, regardless of the form of expression.

In this case, a tram shelter in Poland preserves the natural world in resin, transparently.

Like a mix master, the artist here samples someone else’s handiwork and remixes it, adding a filter, chopping it up and repeating it.  

Dominika Cebula. “Nostalgia”. Lodzkie Centrum Wydarzen. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

Dominika Cebula, a student at the Academy of Fine Arts In Łódź, has created this street work for you to glance at and stare through while waiting for the bus, whatever the weather – rain, snow, morning sun.

She’s calling it “Nostalgia”, and you can see how those minutes of waiting could be affected; your memories triggered to remember birthdays, weddings, funerals, walks by yourself along a train track or beside the river. Hundreds of dried flowers are embedded in the resin, including cornflowers, forget-me-nots, roses, narcissus, freesias, daisies, fern leaves, muscaris, eustomas, alstroemerias, pansies, clover, daffodils, orchids.

Dominika Cebula. “Nostalgia”. Lodzkie Centrum Wydarzen. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

Curated by Michał Bieżyński, “Nostalgia” is an unusual horticultural intervention that adds one more point of visual interest in a city that has enjoyed an alluvial visual invasion of murals and sculptural works in the last decade.

Dominika Cebula. “Nostalgia”. Lodzkie Centrum Wydarzen. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)
Dominika Cebula. “Nostalgia”. Lodzkie Centrum Wydarzen. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)
Dominika Cebula. “Nostalgia”. Lodzkie Centrum Wydarzen. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)
Dominika Cebula. “Nostalgia”. Lodzkie Centrum Wydarzen. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)
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Perplexing the Poles, Mark Jenkins Plays Publicly in Łódź

Perplexing the Poles, Mark Jenkins Plays Publicly in Łódź

“Wanna taste these ramen noodles? They’re really good,” says the woman leaning forward to offer you a fork full of the Japanese food, dangling it over your head.

What?

Mark Jenkins. “Ramen Noodle”. For Łódzkie Centrum Wydarzeń in Lodz, Poland. November 2017. (photo © Rafaà Tomczyk)

The ultimate public still life sculptor and installation artist, Mark Jenkins has just positioned this woman on a lamp post in Łódź, Poland as part of Michał Bieżyński’s ongoing curation of his city’s public space.

Jenkins continues to refine his true-to-life interactions, with realistic, if troubling and surreal, figures frozen mid-action. He casts his own body and sometimes others’ bodies, using packing tape and plastic wrap, and then dresses them in unremarkable clothing that is conventional to the culture and environment.

Mark Jenkins. “Ramen Noodle”. For Łódzkie Centrum Wydarzeń in Lodz, Poland. November 2017. (photo © Rafaà Tomczyk)

This is a kind of human taxidermy, if you will, with bizarre scenarios invoked by the presence of the life-like figure in public space, implicating passersby into the scene before they even realize it.

Here we have six new installations from Jenkins in and around the city center, throwing people off their daily rhythm. They chuckle uncomfortably and point or snap a photo, slightly picking up the pace when walking by.

Mark Jenkins. “Ab Cruncher”. For Łódzkie Centrum Wydarzeń in Lodz, Poland. November 2017. (photo © Rafaà Tomczyk)

Mark Jenkins. “Holy Man”. For Łódzkie Centrum Wydarzeń in Lodz, Poland. November 2017. (photo © Rafaà Tomczyk)

Mark Jenkins. “Holy Man”. For Łódzkie Centrum Wydarzeń in Lodz, Poland. November 2017. (photo © Rafaà Tomczyk)

Mark Jenkins. “Rapunzel”. For Łódzkie Centrum Wydarzeń in Lodz, Poland. November 2017. (photo © Rafaà Tomczyk)

Mark Jenkins. “Rapunzel”. For Łódzkie Centrum Wydarzeń in Lodz, Poland. November 2017. (photo © Rafaà Tomczyk)

Mark Jenkins. “Back Stretcher”. For Łódzkie Centrum Wydarzeń in Lodz, Poland. November 2017. (photo © Rafaà Tomczyk)

Mark Jenkins. “Flower Girl”. For Łódzkie Centrum Wydarzeń in Lodz, Poland. November 2017. (photo © Rafaà Tomczyk)


Artist: Mark Jenkins
Location: Piotrkowska street, Łódz, Poland
Curator: Michał Bieżyński @lodzmurals
Organizer: Łódzkie Centrum Wydarzeń @lodzkiecentrumwydarzen

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