Drożyńska x Zachęta

Drożyńska x Zachęta

Drożyńska x Zachęta are utility items prepared by Monika Drożyńska for Zachęta - the National Art Gallery.

They refer to her series Dwa - Flags, which in 2020 will fly over the entrance to many cultural institutions in Poland and abroad (during the Warsaw Biennale, at Galeria Arsenał in Białystok, Galeria Arsenał in Poznań, BWA in Katowice, BWA Zielona Góra, BWA in Tarnów, BWA Bielska Gallery in Bielsko-Biała, BWA Wrocław Główny, Trafostations of Art in Szczecin, Exhibition Office in Warsaw, Krakauer Haus in Nuremberg, in public spaces of London, Tel Aviv and Liverpool).

This series has been carried out since the beginning of the pandemic. The symbol used in the flag is a drawing from the fabric which was created during the first lockdown, in spring 2020. The fabric has the form of notes. Their embroidery allowed the artist to work through the time of isolation and the exceptional state of the pandemic the world found itself in.

The drawing shows the well-known and often used gesture of fingers spread in the gesture of victoria, with the distance between them marked. This symbol reflects the frustration and helplessness that many people around the world shared during the first lockdown. On the one hand, we felt a natural need to protest, on the other hand, it was practically impossible. After the presidential elections in Poland, the flag with the V sign gained a new critical tone after the earlier election campaign with elements promoting hate speech.

For Zachęta, the artist prepared a series of masks and scarves. The drawing on the mask refers directly to the drawing from the flag, the shawl is decorated with a drawing made especially for the project.

The drawing tells the story of the number "two" and kupidoretii - the virus of love. Two does not divide, but connects. It tells the story of a couple who live together. The story of the meridorethia, written by the writer Aleksandra Liczak, can be read on a sling: "Cupidoteria (from Latin cupido / desire, desire), a virus belonging to the group of love viruses particularly specialised in love; together with cuddling it forms the kingdom of amorum. Cupidotherapy is multiplied by falling in love with a kiss (see kissing); the result is the virus of ordinary love (cf. ordinary love). Kissing spreads meridotherapy, this is how the love epidemic spreads throughout the world. Cupidotherapy is common in the surroundings. In water, soil, food. It is suspended in the air. It plays a fundamental role in nature. The absence of Cupidoteria would make life on earth impossible'.