The name of the exhibition is The Self-Seeker (Samolub, in Polish), curated by the young historian, art critic and publicist Stach Szabłowski. Its sculptures, installations and short films can be explored throughout the summer at Warsaw's Centre for Contemporary Art at Ujazdowski Castle.
Shaping, moulding and engraving white, glazed ceramics and chunky heavy bronze, Brzeski (born 1975) is recognised for his studio sculptures, installations and films. Critics call his creative output "one of the most interesting phenomenon of the Polish art scenes of the last years". Brzeski, on the other hand, represents himself as a nude male with a sizeable penis dangling between his legs and a Pinocchio nose adorning his face. The full-figure bronze sculpture, Self-Portrait (2007), is one of the pieces in the exhibition.
The exhibition's titular Self-Seeker is Brzeski himself. He is an egocentric who takes pleasure in being the centre of attention, a fearless, arrogant person who believes in the possibility that his subjective world - his imaginations and visions - can be translated into objectively understandable sensations and experiences.
27 Women in a Week, a series of portraits of roadside prostitutes, is one of the elements of the exhibition. Drawn during paid posing session on a weeklong car trip around Poland, a contract between the artist and each prostitute established a financial transaction to satisfy the payer's desires - no different from the sexual deal. Beneath that layer however is the Self-Seeker who wishes to put himself in a situation in which he feels desire, shame and the curiosity of puting himself in a situation where art modifies the primitive, instinctual impulse of sexual desire in a socially acceptable manner.
The Self-Seeker is a declaration about instinct, desire and anxiety. Brzeski believes that the forest, the unconscious and the primitive as well as sculpture hold untapped resources, unresolved issues and sources of self-knowledge that can still be drawn from. Art Is Violence (2006–7) is a gallery of portrait busts of glazed ceramics, latex and wood, which have been smashed and then glued together again piece by piece. The CSW exhibition's curator says,
That act of self-iconoclasm was a defining moment for the artist’s relationship with his work and material, [...] Brzeski’s smashing of his own work was an act of liberation from its materiality; upon establishing his own autonomy, the author was able to get down to undoing the damage he had done.
The exhibition, opening on the 21st of June 2013, is a collection of sculptures, portraits, films and drawings from the last decade, along with Brzeski's new works.It is the first comprehensive presentation of Brzeski's work. For more information of the exhibition, see the CSW website.
Editor: MJ 17.06.2013, sources: CSW exhibition catalogue