黑料不打烊

This title was not intended to mock. It is absurd, whimsical, subversive and amusing. Made-up, and democratically chosen by a voting majority. We adults may be upset or disheartened: what do you mean鈥� art extracted from chicken behinds? Once we abandon literality and let ourselves be transported by the metaphor, it reveals an entire universe of young curators鈥� digressions and associations. Let us not be afraid to discover art collections through their eyes 鈥� or indeed add our own connotations. What is contemporary art all about, after all 鈥� if not emotions, commentaries, entanglements, responses and questions? Furthermore, we have known since Slavic times that the world is an egg resting upon a chicken leg. The egg is also a medium allowing connection to spirits and supernatural forces. Everything adds up.

We hereby present you with our process, thoughts and emotions, our operating methods thrown in for good measure. We will discover landscapes created by juxtaposing works from the collection of the 鈥淎rsenal鈥� Gallery in Bia艂ystok with the sensitivity and unfettered imagination of a child. The world of our exhibition is one of care and multiplicity of voices. We are showing works that have triggered emotions in children, ones they wished to describe, reference, and comment on. We see their commentary as equally valid to artists鈥� artworks. There is no need for asking what came first, chicken or egg. We have both hens and eggs in a chicken coop at the show.

Hen-referencing metaphors are not without importance: Polish language has a bespoke expression to describe a woman who has decided to sacrifice her whole life for her family, and spends it cooking, doing laundry, cleaning and raising children (kura domowa 鈥� domestic hen); a mother hen is an overprotective mother, sheltering her children or deciding for them in the name of their safety. Rather than pejorative, we perceive such expressions as arising from the protective nature and magical meaning of hens, which is why female artist hens rather than male artist cockerels have been chosen as the backdrop for our narrative. We have purposely selected works by female artists from the collection of the 鈥淎rsenal鈥� Gallery in Bia艂ystok. The share of works by women in gallery and art collections worldwide (Poland included) is well-nigh identical, pieces by male artists overwhelmingly prevalent. We stand in opposition to such disproportions at our exhibition which proposes a fresh approach to art, inviting conversation, choosing a world with space for otherness and difference, and reversing overall privilege directions we are aware of through openness and inclusion. It is an invitation to enter a reality basing on a narrative by entities unheard and not approached seriously (children, women, animals; dreams, intuitions, care, compassions).