Long Distance Line

artists: Maria Anto, Karolina Breguła, Zuzanna Janin, Elka Krajewska, Monika Mamzeta,  Anna Orbaczewska, Anna Panek, Joanna Rajkowska, Katya Shadkowska, Mateusz Szczypiński, Alicja Wahl, Julia Woronowicz, Ewa Zarzycka, Liliana Zeic

curator: Agnieszka Rayzacher

The exhibition Long-Distance Line takes its title from a term used in logistics, which here becomes a metaphor referring to the immaterial—perhaps even transcendent—essence of the line. Since the time of Plato, the line has been the subject of inquiry and investigation in the fields of philosophy, aesthetics, and the theory of art, music, and culture. As Thorsten Botz-Bornstein writes in The Philosophy of Lines, lines are fundamental entities created both consciously and unconsciously by humans.

In the exhibition, we explore the line in its many incarnations. Paul Klee, one of the first creators and theorists of modern drawing, and author of the statement: “A line is a dot that went for a walk” emphasized its dynamic nature as a means of guiding the human eye through the space of a drawing or painting. In his collection of lessons for the Bauhaus, he also examined analogies between visual form and natural processes, observing that lines in composition follow a specific logic of growth and development. He compared systems found in nature to linear structures in drawing. It is precisely this line, through the power and symbolism of plants, that becomes a central thread of our exhibition.

In his book Lines: A Brief History, Tim Ingold reflects on the moment when drawing becomes writing, referring to a story about Eeyore from A. A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh, in which Eeyore proudly arranges three sticks and informs Piglet that what he sees is the letter A. The theme of the drawn line becoming text—while remaining a drawing—is of particular interest to us, and is connected to a number of works that go far beyond traditional drawing techniques.

Alongside drawings, sculptures, and objects, we also present textiles—the word “line” derives from the Latin linea, originally meaning a thread made of flax (linum). The warp forms the basis of the tapestry, accepting the interwoven weft, symbolically linking weaving with storytelling—one of the earliest linear practices in anthropology.

A significant part of the exhibition is devoted to works in which female artists, using various tools to create lines, reflect on the body—its pleasure, play, movement, gesture, grimace, pain, and emotion. The works on view are bound by a thread—thin, fragile, and trembling. The Long-Range Line emerges from the desire to conduct an experiment on selected objects—to discover what connects them beyond the line itself, drawn in various ways. That line is only the beginning of the plot we seek to continue.