The Gift / Das Gift

Julia Bachur, Kama Kicińska, Zuzanna Mazurek, Julia Szczerbowska, Amelia Woroszył

In Germanic languages, the word “gift” originally meant “that which was given.” Over time, its meaning split: in English, it retained the positive sense of a gift, while in German it now means poison. This shift in meaning reveals the ambivalence of the very act of giving, a gesture that can be both a source of pleasure and an obligation. 

In the exhibition The Gift / Das Gift, the artists – Julia Bachur, Kamila Kicińska, Zuzanna Mazurek, Julia Szczerbowska, and Amelia Woroszył – examine the ultimate gift, which is the giving of oneself – desire, sacrifice, and potential self-sacrifice as ambiguous gestures. 

Desire here is not necessarily a romantic impulse, but a voracious, obsessive force carrying within it both a longing for closeness and the potential for destruction. Eroticism, in turn, takes the form of an energy that allows a person to affirm life even in extreme moments, where vitality mingles with the dread of transience. 

This drive may confront us with fantasies, but also with a sense of lack, and need not pertain specifically to another person or material objects, but rather to an idea, to the absolute. It has the potential to lead toward truth and goodness, once properly purified and redirected. In accordance with the belief that renouncing the ego can bring happiness through devotion to something greater than the individual, in an act of love without possession. 

curator: Marianna Łomża