Internal Lighting

The exhibition of the latest works by Gizela Mickiewicz, which after years of creating objects returned to figural sculpture. The series of works is inspired by the experience of motherhood and also refers to the work of the Romanian writer Max Blecher. The author, who is suffering from a sudden illness, has devoted his little output to a meticulous description of the subsequent stages of its course, isolation on a hospital bed, and the processes of physical and mental disintegration. Commenting on the exhibition, the artist has eagerly and directly referred to the observations written down by Blecher. She has not been interested in biography details, but rather in the form of a description of the existential crisis and the disturbance of the structure of the personality – knocked out of the ruts of what she considered a norm. Similarly to the text, Mickiewicz abstracts herself from her own life experience, clearing the works of confessional elements in favour of fluid forms evoking the stirring of the self caused by life events. The materials used by Mickiewicz resemble a bit a figurative sculpture of the second half of the 20th century, but they do not claim to be universalist narratives – they are intimate works, demonstrating the relativism of views and meanings.