Ulrike Grossarth: symbol gotowe / sklep

‚Esther and Ruth / merchants unmasked’
Studying Stefan Kiełsznia’s photos resulted for me in a whole complex of topics relating to an urban atmosphere and questions of the basic rules of barter. In 2020 I worked on an ensemble entitled Esther and Ruth / merchants unmasked for an exhibition in ‚Kunstmuseum Basel’.
The new function attributed to Esther and Ruth puts their masks in a different light. They now seem to be aware of the ambiguity involved in the exchange process of the artificially generated values negotiated as equivalents. The planned operation enables me to un-mask this agreement. This includes the reinterpretation of the objects on the advertising panels from Stefan Kiełsznia’s archive.

In addition, sacks were created that follow a motif from Stefan Kielsznia's photos of a shop window on ulica Świętoduska.
For a long time I was fascinated by informations about material conditions of various goods in the form of zeros.

‚The Eye Of The Needle’, Lublin 2019
In this photo series my entire time in Lublin is present. It was created by using my now extensive ‚polish archive’, the motifs which reflect the frequency of the geographical location and the still noticeable Jewish character of Lublin.
I confronted the ‚Lublin Archive’ with the ‚Encyclopédie Diderot and D’Alembert’, Paris 1751, as a Western European "cultural preserve".
It was my concern to encounter the space itself as the “non-observable” independent zone, which I have addressed in many of my works, through inspiration from Stefan Kiełsznia 's photo archive. The medium in which this encounter took place in September 2019 was my old analog camera.
The camera was held with closed eyes and the pictures were taken irregularly
The arrangement in the room and the copied drawings that were used as paper intermediate levels, were rearranged every half hour.
The light images were projected as a stream of motifs, so that at every moment a moving “activity” determined the interaction.

Na wystawie „Lublin Storehouse” Ulrike Grossarth pracuje z zarchiwizowanymi przez siebie motywami, które zgromadziła w ciągu ostatnich 10 lat podczas pobytów w Lublinie i jego okolicach. To elementy pochodzące z Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej – regionu, gdzie pod wpływem pełnych przemocy reżimów XX wieku zaszły fundamentalne zmiany, a obecnie ponownie zagrożonego za sprawą tendencji nacjonalistycznych. Ten materiał zestawiony jest z zachodnioeuropejską „kulturową ochroną zabytków”: „Encyclopédie” Diderota i d’Alemberta (Paryż, 1751). W ten sposób tworzy się środowisko multiplikacji kategorii, z którego mogą wyłonić się podświadome, nieprzetworzone i wciąż jeszcze silne szczegóły zdarzeń historycznych.

In the exhibition Lublin Storehouse, Ulrike Grossarth works with motifs from her archive gathered during her stays in Lublin (Poland) and its surroundings over the past ten years. These motifs are elements from Central Eastern Europe, a region that underwent fundamental changes under the violent regimes of the 20th century and that is threatened by nationalist tendencies again today. This material is juxtaposed with a West European “cultural preserve”: the Encyclopédie by Diderot & D’Alembert (Paris 1751). In this way, a milieu is created where categories are multiplied and unconscious, unresolved and still powerful details of historical events may appear.

Online catalogue: http://lublinstorehouse.org

Dům umění Ústí nad Labem / Ústí nad Labem House of Arts

„Wielka Improwizacja / Skład mentalny" w „SYMBOL gotowe / sklep", detal, fot. Ulrike Grossarth, wrzesień 2016

Details from 'Wielka Improwizacja / Mental Storehouse' in 'SYMBOL gotowe / sklep', photo by Ulrike Grossarth, September 2016