Hubert Czerepok
Occasional Medallion | objects to be found, 2018
To mark the tenth, jubilee edition of NARRACJE, Hubert Czerepok prepared a special occasional medallion. When the artist visited the metropolitan cathedral in Oliwa, he was particularly struck by its beautiful decorations, with the prominent motif of the sun and rays – the symbol of divine light. On the obverse side of the medallion, Czerepok recreated the gleam of the decorations he saw, and on the reverse side, he placed a symbolic representation of a lotus flower, regarded as sacred by a number of civilizations. The lotus represents purity, longevity and the ability to regenerate. In Buddhism, eight lotus petals correspond to cosmic harmony, and a thousand petals to spiritual enlightenment. According to Egyptian mythology, the lotus bud was the first living organism to emerge from the chaos of water. Hinduists believe that when the world was born, a lotus flower grew out of Vishnu’s navel. The artist decided to place the lotus flower on his medallion when he found out that the Oliwa cathedral is the site of a crown chakra. In the eastern part of the church, where the chakra is located, the energy takes on its most perfect form – in Eastern culture, this type of energy is symbolized by the thousand-petalled lotus. Positive radiation is measured using the Bovis scale (BSM): radiation that is beneficial to humans begins at 6,500 BSM, and measurements of 10,000 BSM and more indicate places with particularly positive radiation. Around 50,000 BSM was detected in the Oliwa cathedral, but during organ concerts this value may go up to even 75,000 BSM.
In order to become the owner of a medallion exposed to positive radiation, the only thing you have to do is look carefully as you walk around the Oliwa Park – counting on the luck of festival-goers, the artist ‘lost’ quite a few of these objects amidst the paths and alleys.
location: alleys, Oliwa Park
Hubert Czerepok (b. 1973) is a visual artist, author of installations, photographs, objects and films. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań (obtaining his degree from the studios of Izabella Gustowska and Jan Berdyszak). In 2002–3 he completed a postgraduate course at Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht, and in 2004–5 at the Higher Institute for Fine Arts in Antwerp. He worked as an assistant and then assistant professor at the Video Studio of the Poznań University of the Arts. He is currently an associate professor at the Faculty of Painting and New Media of the Szczecin Academy of the Arts, head of the Experimental Film Studio. He researches anomalies, the bizarre and the uncontrollable; he analyses structures that determine human behaviours, tracks down conspiracy theories and paranormal phenomena, looks for the rules of the Great Conspiracy and combines history with utopia. Exceptionally erudite and endowed with a sense of humour, Czerepok walks the line between ironic distance and authentic involvement. He has taken part in many exhibitions in Poland and abroad (including in the US, Germany and France).
