Through the walls and facades of Kunsthalle Bratislava mass laughter “explodes”. Its source is in thousands of recordings of the laughter of women and men from diverse countries, who support equal rights and freedom.
The project follows the mode of work adopted in Krakowiak’s work It Begins With One Word. Choose Your Own (2020) at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion in Barcelona. Responding to the situation of the pandemic and lockdown, she announced an open call for words that people worldwide wished to make last and take responsibility for. The submitted words combined to form a polyphonic composition, a structure that tied together the architectural and the linguistic. Expanding the meaning of architecture through language, the artist generated a collectively shaped social sculpture.
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Katarzyna Krakowiak: It is not night, yet, 2021
"In Bratislava, Krakowiak has created a monumental sound bridge uniting people in order to let emotions flow freely. As a natural reflex that exists beyond language, laughter accompanies situations where words no longer work. Its atavistic, almost animal force and energy mobilises and unites communities. It is precisely what we need in a time of crisis, when rights are trodden underfoot and freedoms violated." states Lýdia Pribišová, exhibition curator.
Laughter is a universal human language, which brings positive energy and hope during a long period of depression. The current situation is not by any means easy, just as the laughter resounding from the Kunsthalle Bratislava building is not effortless. Let us overcome anxiety and laugh out loud! Sound is invisible, and so is the power of laughter. It is more persuasive than a thousand words. Katarzyna Krakowiak’s installation broadcasts a powerful message of collective power, mutual support and hope.
The project is supported by Adam Mickiewicz Institute and co-financed by the Ministry of Culture, National Heritage and Sport of the Republic of Poland, by SPP Foundation, by the Polish Institute in Bratislava, and by he Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw.
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KATARZYNA KRAKOWIAK (*1980, Poland) lives and works in the town Otwock in Poland and Oliva in Spain. In 2012 she gained particular recognition for her work The Walls Quake as if They Were Dilating with the Secret Knowledge of the Great Powers, in the Polish pavilion at the 13th international exhibition of architecture / la Biennale di Venezia. Selected projects: 2020 It Begins with One Word. Choose Your Own, Mies van der Rohe Pavilion, Barcelona; 2018 Dust, Halle am Berghain, Berlin; 2016 As Though Nothing Could Fall Except the Sun, Mieczyslaw Karlowicz´s Philharmonic, Szczecin, from the series Architecture is the Music of Space, Five Exceptional Concert Halls in Europe, instalments in: Blaibach, Reykjavik, Oslo and Porto; 2014 The First Shock of Great Escape, Arsenal, Gdansk; 2013 The Great and the Secret Show/ The Look Out gallery, PERFORMA 13 with Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York City; 2013 Rise and Fall of Air, The Zachęta National Gallery of Art , Warsaw; 2013 When a Steam Breaks the Water Perpendicularly, its Angle is Measured to Be 0 Degree, and the Degree Gets Closer to 90 As It is Slanted More, and the Level Surface is 90 Degrees, Post MoMA, New York City; 2008 – 2011 All. FM, pirate radio stations realised in the cities of Jaffa, Tallin, Mexico City and Wroclaw. Krakowiak leads the Studio of Sound Activities at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw.
Opening: 1. 10. 2021 | 6 pm — 8 pm
Curator: Lýdia Pribišová
Duration: 2. 10. 2021 – 14. 11. 2021
Place: Kunsthalle LAB