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SUMMARY:Monika Sosnowska: Weight of Matter @SouthLondonGallery
UID:https://instytutpolski.pl/london/2026/08/27/monika-sosnowska-weight-of-matter-southlondongallery/
LOCATION:
DTSTAMP:20260910
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Warsaw:20260910
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Warsaw:20261122
DESCRIPTION:10 September - 22 November 2026, Main Gallery & Fire Station Galleries,
during gallery opening hours, Wednesday – Sunday, The Main Gallery and
Fire Station are open: Wed 12-9pm and Thu-Sun 12-6pm
Press & Influencer preview: 9 September, 9.30am - 11am
This autumn, the South London Gallery (SLG) will present Weight of Matter,
a major solo exhibition by Polish artist Monika Sosnowska (b. 1972, Ryki).
Spanning the Main Gallery and two floors of the Fire Station, the
exhibition will feature some of Sosnowska’s monumental sculptures,
including deconstructed forms rendered in steel, concrete and other
materials associated with modernist architecture.
Sosnowska’s sculptural practice explores urban transformation, and how
architecture reflects social and political change, in particular the
implosion of the Communist regime in Poland and the legacy of modernism.
Her interest lies in the impact that architecture and space have on people
and the challenges involved in transforming existing structures.
At the SLG, a monumental site-specific installation in the Victorian Main
Gallery will unite a group of previously disparate large-scale works
suspended from the distinctive beams beneath the vast glass ceiling
lantern. Made of construction materials such as steel and rebar, and some
weighing over half a tonne, this huge display will seemingly test the
fabric of a 135-year-old institution. The skeletal works will hang from the
rafters like carcasses, remnants of architectural and broader histories in
which individual elements merge into an intertwined and sometimes
incomprehensible mass.
In the Fire Station building, which dates back to 1867, Sosnowska’s works
will again be positioned to be in direct response to the architecture and
history of the gallery spaces. A sculpture based on the form of a collapsed
black metal staircase will be shown in the former engine room to be in
clear dialogue with the Fire Station’s new white metal stairs which were
inspired by the architectural language of fire escapes. The adjacent
gallery overlooking a leafy outdoor space will be overtaken by sculptures
with plant-like forms to create a concrete garden of rebar branches and
collapsing trees. Upstairs in what used to be the firemen’s living
quarters, painted steel works reminiscent of crumpled paper and peeling
walls will hark back to the dilapidated state of the building before it was
converted for its current use.
Sosnowska is known for working with industrial materials and often on a
large scale, but her ideas are developed through the creation of intricate
paper models, which are rarely seen outside the studio and are shown here
for the first time in London. These small-scale maquettes draw on the
architectural tradition of model-making and reveal a fascinating aspect of
the artist’s working practice.
About Monika Sosnowska Monika Sosnowska studied at the Academy of Fine Arts
in Poznań and completed postgraduate training at the Rijksakademie in
Amsterdam. She is now based in Warsaw. Recent solo exhibitions include
Monika Sosnowska: An Order Apart at EMMA (Espoo Museum of Modern Art),
Espoo, Finland (2024); Ghosts at Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne, Germany
(2024); and a major presentation at Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, Switzerland
(2023). Her work is currently on show at the Princess Estelle Sculpture
Park, Rosendal, Royal Djurgården, Stockholm.
Find out more about the exhibition HERE
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