Young inhabitants of Brzeźno in cooperation with Jerzy Bohdan Szumczyk
SWEETS IN THE PAVILIONS
site-specific installation / 2017
Brzeźno District Council office, back entrance, Dworska 27
Young inhabitants of Brzeźno, together with educators Joanna Ważny, Agata Piasecka and Tricity artist Jerzy Bohdan Szumczyk, have prepared a sweet treat for NARRACJE Festival. They would like to invite festivalgoers to the pavilions, specifically to the seat of the District Council, which is their base and where they feel safe. The sweet course in question, in its external incarnation, takes on the form of a gigantic sugar cube or wafer covered with icing sugar, placed right next to the entrance to the council office. A secret entrance, mind, which will only be open for the public for the duration of the festival. The bright geometrical figure stands as if in contrast to the surrounding architectural chaos and eclectic aesthetic mix of what comprises the shopping and service facility which the inhabitants refer to as ‘the pavilions.’ Paradoxically, this sweet cube, which we would normally associate with an entourage of market stalls, colourful balloons and candy floss, here symbolises a modest, ascetic form and assumes the (literal) proportions of a monument. The hosts have also prepared a dessert party, with a special surprise for festivalgoers, created with a hearty dose of Brzeźno’s laid-back attitude.
Jerzy Bohdan Szumczyk (b. 1987)
is a sculptor and author of artistic interventions and installations. He graduated from the Faculty of Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk. Szumczyk co-founded the Rokosz Group, which animates cultural life in localities built around former state-run farms. He is interested in these elements of the history of communities which for some reasons give rise to strong emotions (from nostalgia to denial), and in how they resonate in this day and age. The artist made a name for himself with the Komm Frau sculpture and S.O.S. installation– both objects raised considerable controversy and their presentation in Gdańsk turned into a performance of sorts. He is associated with the Gdańsk-Sopot-Gdynia community and his native Lidzbark Warmiński.