designers' task force
by Jakub Szczęsny - installation in the Branicki park in Białystok, part of the exhibition The Journey to the East organized in frame of Polish Presidency in EU
opening: August 05 of 2011
Kolektor is an attempt of separating artistic expression of an oeuvre's from what is contemporary mechanisms of marketing a piece of art through emphasizing the person of the author and the anegdote surrounding an act of creation. Same could be said about the role of a curator, gallerist, art collector or critic, who's personality, in some cases even celebrity, might become in marketing practice, a currency of much more value and more meanin than the piece itself.
The separation can be done through eliminating the human factor, starting with authorship of the oeuvre. Kolektor is a life-less machine moved by simple electronic steering of two carousels that show sixteen oil paintings of anonymous, deceased artist. Each time, the viewer sees two pictures at once. One of carousels stops for two sequences every seven moves making an illusion of more paintings being placed in the machine and changing the configuration of pieces seen by the viewer. The form of the installation is an effort of binding pure functionality of a „exhibition tool” with an effect of UFO-alike differenciation from the context of a park surrounding the baroque Branicki Palace in Białystok.
author: Jakub Szczęsny
mechanical design: Marek Tkaczyk
curator: Monika Szewczyk
author of paintings: unknown
photos by Kamil Mrozowicz / Maciej Zaniewski
