17.-23.10.2022 6-channel sound installation for ZDRÓJ exhibition by Alicja Wysocka at fffriedrich, Frankfurt am Main Germany

Photos by Jeeyun Jeong

10.-12.2.2023 ZDRÓJ, 6-channel sound installation together with Alicja Wysocka part of Rundgang 2023, Städelchule, Frankfurt am Main

Just like a stream that branches out, Alicja Wysocka’s artistic practice reaches into a multitude of fields. The artist’s thinking is shaped by her interest in interrelations, connections and gatherings. Thus, it comes as no surprise that her exhibition ZDRÓJ is a multilayered undertaking, a delta that offers different streams to follow. However, there is a specific questionnaire that grounds ZDRÓJ: What are the myths people have created around water? What forms do they take?

The historical examples Alicja Wysocka is referring to are closely tied to her recent partaking in residency programs in Belgrade and Sofia, and to the many road trips across Eastern Europe that started from there. Voyages on which the artist has crossed paths with different traditions and phenomena relating to water. From architectural ruins and intact resorts built around local bathing cultures to people kissing orthodox icons before drinking thermal water. From self-proclaimed ‚healers‘ Allan Chumak and Zbigniew Nowak ‚charging‘ water with their bare hands spread out to the people eagerly watching them being broadcasted on national TV stations during the Perestroika period.

It is phenomena like these that are at the centre of this exhibition. Moments in which beliefs and water overlap, and the liquids are made ‚holy‘, are seen and kissed as relics.

In order to bring her impressions to life in various media, Alicja Wysocka has collaborated with Iza Koczanowska and Ari-Pekka Leinonen: What does believing look like? How does it sound? And what happens to a belief once it is long gone?

Steadily, water takes its course. And naturally, people gather near the spring.

Txt @mmkkbbllll

ZDRÓJ

Alicja Wysocka

curated by Mike Bill @mmkkbbllll & Teresa Heinzelmann @teresa_hnzlmn

closing reception: 23.10.2022, 19:00

open daily: 17-23.10, 16:00-19:00

video collaboration: Iza Koczanowska @islaparadis
sound installation: Ari-Pekka Leinonen @amigoismyfriend

essays by: Sebastjan Brank @sebastjanbr, Teodora Jeremić @dazedsparkle, Neva Lukić @dzepni.dijalozi, Jelena Mijić @ksjaybdjxha Mlechevska @verammlechevska.

At @fffriedrich galery. design: @alghorie #exhibition #art #frankfurt #alicjawysocka