In Icelandic art tradition, cultural and natural heritage seems to play the main part, while the conception
of tradition in Polish art is a very complicated matter. Current trends in Polish art, in spite of all
their variety, bring to light the dominance of ironic aesthetics in reflections. Artists use the image they
find around and fix their attention on decomposition, imitation or mystification, which is possible to
interpret as an answer to the long-term exile of reality in the visual world of Poland in the Communist
period in general and in the art of that period in particular.
On the other hand, the works from Iceland on view in BWA Design gallery in Wroclaw are deeply rooted
in the Icelandic tradition. There is a substantial tie between modern commentaries to this art and
the mythical and symbolic tradition. The significance of the majority of the works presented is built on
an intensity of elements derived from the pre-Christian culture of the North with its trolls and giants.
References to these “prehuman” creatures extend the continuous line with magic in order to understand
and describe the world, alternative to the logocentrical reductionism of rational recognition.
There is a great significance of space and human/woman’s body as a ground for negotiations about
natural and cultural problems, which exists in deep connection with the remarks above. A similar part
is played in some of the works by idyllic childhood theme colliding with a real, total dependence on
identification models and marketing strategies, which we “buy” and build our expectation on, almost
from the beginning of our life. The artists create their own relations with apparent or projected real
space by frequently referring to the tradition of minimalist art with its integrity and fundamental discipline
of expression. With their art they analyze the process of sensorial perception, rules of experimental
recognition or intuition as channels determining the architecture of our vision of the world and
ourselves.
Text by Art Critic Anna Mitu
