Cezary Poniatowski, Solo show

Cezary Poniatowski’s solo exhibition centers around the ancient concept of pharmakon and its historical and cultural references. Pharmakon is a notion that means both remedy and poison - the venom and the antidote are often the same substance. The artist creates reliefs using sewn-up carpets, metal zip ties, and ventilation elements. These pieces are empty inside, held together by stitches, with the reverse side of the carpet facing outward, a gesture meant to evoke a sense of claustrophobia in both the artwork and the viewer. The works function as semi-permeable filters, cleansing the atmosphere, while also acting as spectral reliquaries for potentially "dangerous" substances. They grotesquely oscillate between the imagery of voodoo beliefs and the rough visions of Socialist Realism. The exhibition also addresses memory as pharmakon, in the spirit of Nietzsche and Freud - memory that can be either “life-giving” or “parasitic,” disturbing our capacity for “being-in-time.”