Large-format illustrations in the space of narrative exhibition "Maria. Song of Home"
Client — Maria Konopnicka Museum in Suwałki, PL
Premiere — August 2022
Large-format illustrations in the space of the permanent narrative exhibition at the Maria Konopnicka Museum in Suwałki. There has not yet been such an exhibition in the history of museology. The convention is unprecedented: the viewer enters Maria Konopnicka's head, follows her thoughts, feelings, memories and dreams - poetic impressions of important events, emotions, traumas, repressions, life dilemmas. Most important is the script, exemplarily constructed in terms of tensions and twists. To make Maria's thoughts tangible we used state-of-the-art means of expression - dozens of multimedia stations and interactive, stylistically bold graphics. Immersion and emotion are our priorities. Film shorts, audio plays, animations and poetic set installations are part of the exhibition. Everything in aesthetics close to surrealism, but there will also be contemporary pop-culture (e.g. science-fiction) interjections. The exhibition includes the largest Pepper's ghost video projection in Europe. My illustrations are part of the atmosphere and narrative of the exhibition - they are an emotional addition, a commentary of our protagonist Maria. They testify to the processes in Maria Konopnicka's head, add further layers to her reflections.
The exhibition is narrative not only in name — all the means of expression I have used serve to expand the story. The story (plot) is, in the case of this exhibition, the most important aspect of influence on the viewer. The chosen convention of presenting Maria Konopnicka's biography as a sequence of her memories - a journey through the recesses of her mind - is dictated by the introversion of the heroine of our story. The energy for actions (and after all, actions, motives for those actions and dilemmas before taking them are the essence of any story) Konopnicka drew from within her mental sphere. In her mind lies the greatest narrative potential: a lush imagination, her own "cognitive filter," errors and distortions in the perception of reality, dreams, ambitions, mosaics of emotions, interpenetrating (sometimes opposing) worldviews, suppressions, transfers. All this is the subject of this collection of illustrations.
In 2022 this set of illustration was nominated to Project of the Year (Projekt Roku) STGU award.
In 2022 this set of illustration was nominated to Project of the Year (Projekt Roku) STGU award.
