2025
sculpture

Wiktoria Walendzik’s sculpture is a tribute to play as a way of coping with trauma. Play – especially when accompanied by music – becomes a form of expression that allows emotions to be released. Its positive effects include reducing anxiety, easing tension and restoring a sense of agency.

The sculpture is located next to the Festival Club and remains closely connected to its role as a place of gathering and enjoyment. In creating the work, the artist drew inspiration from the decorative arrangements that often adorn tables at wedding receptions –  among the sculpted forms made of fruit, the banana is a recurring element. In popular culture, it holds a special place: appearing in art, symbolising visual humour and serving as an erotic motif.

In her work, Walendzik combines the soft, delicate and tactile banana with the dolphin – an intelligent creature endowed with remarkable emotional sensitivity. Dolphins form strong social bonds and delight in play, yet they are also deeply susceptible to suffering. Humans often romanticise them as emblems of freedom or kitsch symbols of happiness.

Walendzik explores the duality inherent in representations of the banana and the dolphin. On one level, their hybrid toy form evokes humour; on another, the artist uses them to expose the infantilisation of tragic stories and the mocking treatment of trauma. She refers to experiences of violence that are often trivialised through familiar phrases such as ‘it was only a prank’ or ‘you’re overreacting’.

WIKTORIA WALENDZIK is a sculptor and a graduate of the Academy of Art in Szczecin. In her practice, she explores autobiographical themes, and her sculptures are often self-portraits. She is interested in relationships with Others – not only with people, but also with non-human species and with emotions. For Walendzik, closeness to nature is essential, both as inspiration and as a source of sculptural material. Her works combine elements such as wood and pinecones with more industrial materials, including polyester resin and car body filler. She lives and works in Przewodowice, Rogówiec, Warsaw and Rawa Mazowiecka.