Anna Królikiewicz
In Light I Trust | neon, 2018
Anna’s personal motto, expressed in the form of a bright neon sign, is a paraphrase of the famous maxim In God We Trust. This phrase comes from the American national anthem, which was written in 1814. Almost 150 years later, it was placed on all American banknotes – a symbolic gesture in the context of the Cold War and American relations with the atheism-promoting Soviet Union. The quote has given rise to a number of travesties, such as the Chemical Brothers song In Dust We Trust. Especially for NARRACJE, Anna Królikiewicz has prepared her own interpretation of the famous quote – a neon sign producing white light, whose simple typographic layout reads IN LIGHT I TRUST. On the one hand, Królikiewicz’s work contains a universal message, whose meaning may be sought already in Parmenides of Elea’s poem On Nature. For the Greek philosopher, light signified truth, contrary to darkness, which he associated with non-existence and lies. Natural light also leads to connotations with the enlightenment, (self)education as a way of discovering our true selves and striving to achieve perfection. On the other hand, this is the artist’s personal declaration, and many people have already got a taste of her inexhaustible energy and unique élan vital that shine through all her actions. Throughout two festival nights, Anna Królikiewicz is going to share some of her own internal light with Oliwa.
location: roundabout, Stanisława Witkiewicza Street
Anna Królikiewicz (b. 1970) is a visual artist and academic professor (doctor habilitus). She is a graduate of the Faculty of Painting of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, where she currently heads the Fourth Drawing Studio. In 2001–3 she lectured at the Bilkent University in Ankara, and since 2013 she has taught The Shape of Taste at Poznań’s School of Form. She is interested in all aspects of the broadly understood physicality of the body and fragility of memory; her works created over the last 8 years concern the physiology of taste and synaesthesia, relational art and enhancing participation in art. Devoted to monumental drawings and installations, she is also an author of texts and feature columns. She has a number of solo exhibitions under her belt and has taken part in several dozen collective shows in Poland and abroad. Królikowska has won many awards for her artistic and educational achievements. Born in Sopot, she still lives and works there.
