{"id":678,"date":"2019-06-03T19:11:58","date_gmt":"2019-06-03T17:11:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/budapeszt\/?p=678"},"modified":"2019-06-11T21:38:18","modified_gmt":"2019-06-11T19:38:18","slug":"magdalena-abakanowicz-cage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/budapest\/2019\/06\/03\/magdalena-abakanowicz-cage\/","title":{"rendered":"Magdalena Abakanowicz: Cage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Exhibition of Magdaleny Abakanowicz (1930-2017), one of Poland’s most internationally-acclaimed artists at the Plat\u00e1n Gallery.<\/b><\/p>\n

Thursday 25 April, 6:00 pm \u2014 Friday 7 June 2019, 6:00 pm<\/p>\n

Plat\u00e1n Gal\u00e9ria<\/p>\n

Budapest, VI. Andr\u00e1ssy \u00fat 32.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Polish Institute in Budapest cordially invites You to the vernissage of the exhibition<\/strong><\/p>\n

PLAT\u00c1N20<\/strong><\/p>\n

Magdalena Abakanowicz<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cage<\/strong><\/p>\n

at 6 p.m. on Thursday, 25th\u00a0of April 2019, at the Plat\u00e1n Gallery.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Celebratory remarks: Joanna Urba\u0144ska, director of the Polish Institute<\/strong><\/p>\n

Opening speech: Krisztina Jerger, art historian<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the spring of 1988, we were preparing for the exhibition of\u00a0Magdalena\u00a0Abakanowicz\u00a0in every hall of\u00a0the\u00a0M\u0171csarnok\u00a0\/\u00a0Kunsthalle\u00a0Budapest.\u00a0I was the one honoured with the task of being her helper, her \u2018roustabout\u2019. I had known\u00a0her works, but I had never been in such intimate proximity to them.\u00a0Likewise,\u00a0I had never met\u00a0Magdalena in person\u00a0before. She was a radiant, resolute phenomenon.\u00a0She knew what she wanted and how, she accommodated herself in the\u00a0M\u0171csarnok\u00a0with fascinating rapidity. She wanted to introduce every stage of her career, the entire span of her oeuvre to the Hungarian audience. She brought her\u00a0legendary three-dimensional\u00a0textile works, the so-called\u00a0Abakans, the Red and the Black one. She herself said this about them: \u201cI protest the classification of life and art with my three-dimensional woven\u00a0forms. My\u00a0forms\u00a0slowly grow like natural formations. They are organic. They serve meditation like other formations of our world.\u201d These enormous environments fundamentally re-evaluated our approach to textile.\u00a0Then she took out her head- and armless sackcloth torsos, sitting them on pedestals or lining them up in packed rows, but mostly, emphasising their inert vulnerability, she placed them in a huddled crowd on the floor, giving rise to heartrending dramatic tension in the space.\u00a0The motionless crowd gave us a sense of calm before the storm.\u00a0War, death, fear, uncertainty.\u00a0These faceless creatures expressed the experiences of Poland in the\u00a0Second\u00a0World War.\u00a0Or perhaps much more, more universal?\u00a0The fragility of mankind?\u00a0Being caged?\u00a0Probably.\u00a0This is the piece exhibited now at\u00a0the\u00a0Plat\u00e1n\u00a0Gallery, accompanied by some charcoal drawings. Charcoal drawings accompanied the\u00a0entire\u00a0oeuvre of\u00a0Abakanowicz, sometimes as studies, sometimes forming a dynamic, expressive graphic series. She brought a number of these to the\u00a0M\u0171csarnok, as proof of her brilliant drawing skills. The embryos had a separate hall.\u00a0Sackcloth eggs, about\u00a0800 of them. Their quantity in itself\u00a0was\u00a0an astonishing feat. The air froze around them, they filled the exhibition hall\u00a0so tightly it seemed about to explode. If this was not enough, five monumental sculptures made on site augmented the show. The massive logs of wood\u00a0resembled\u00a0sharp,\u00a0metallic\u00a0extraterrestrial\u00a0weapons ready to attack and\u00a0destroy. Their title was \u201cStar Wars\u201d. The exhibition was open for two months.\u00a0It\u00a0was\u00a0visited\u00a0by masses, and people were talking about the theretofore unknown Polish artist all over the capital.\u00a0She put contemporary art on a pedestal, and her significance can be felt to this day. What she meant to me?\u00a0Learning, first of all.\u00a0To see the importance of the use of space and rhythm, the conscious, subtle shaping of context.\u00a0And last, but not least, to experience the joy of great teamwork. I owe it all to\u00a0Magdalena.\u00a0Dzi\u0119kuj\u0119.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Krisztina Jerger, curator of the exhibition<\/p>\n

The works presented at the exhibition are from the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts (Budapest) anf the Marta Magdalena Abakanowicz Kosmowskia and Jan Kosmowski Foundation (Warsaw).<\/p>\n

Partner of the exhibition: Adam Mickiewicz Institute<\/p>\n

On view Mondays through Fridays 10 am \u2013 6 pm until 7. June 2019.<\/p>\n

Plat\u00e1n Gallery – 1061 Budapest, Andr\u00e1ssy \u00fat 32.<\/p>\n\n\n\n