The exhibition of works by one of the most interesting personalities of the Wroclaw art scene was organized in celebration of 50 years of the artist's creative activities
Natalalia LL, "Snienia" / "Dreamings", 1978
For over forty years, Natalia LL has been producing highly original works that have included paintings, drawings, photographs, installations, sculptures, performance art pieces and video art. She is among Poland's top media artists and simultaneously one of the world's most important feminist artists. Her penchant for formal experimentation coupled with vast knowledge and deep reflection prompted her to produce many excellent texts. Natalia LL's entire, unusually abundant and multifaceted oeuvre might take its motto from a reflection contained in one of her texts from 1987, "Art is the search for freedom. Freedom is a goal in and of itself, and art realizes that goal."
Two books, "Natalia LL texty" / "Natalia LL Texts" and "Natalia LL. Sny i snienia" / "Natalia LL - Sleepings and Dreamings," and the soon to be released DVD documenting her visual and video work are the joint project of the Galeria Bielska BWA (Bielska Gallery of the Office of Art Exhibitions) in Bielsko-Biala and the Galeria Sztuki Wspolczesnej BWA (Office of Art Exhibitions Contemporary Art Gallery) in Wroclaw. Publication of the first book accompanied the exhibition NATALIA LL. PODSUMOWANIA / NATALIA LL - SUMMARIES, held in Bielsko-Biala in October of 2004, while the second book will have its premiere during the opening of exhibition NATALIA LL. SEANS ONIRYCZNY / NATALIA LL - A DREAM SCREENING, hosted by the Contemporary Art Gallery of the Office of Art Exhibitions in Wroclaw in April of 2005.
The project's aim is to reveal Natalia LL as the unusual artistic personality she is, as an individual who possesses immense intellectual potential and a body of outstanding and innovative creative achievements that span virtually all forms of artistic expression. SNY I SNIENIA / SLEEPINGS AND DREAMINGS comprises a series of texts related to one of the more unusual parts of the artist's creative career, one in which she attempted to access and record that intangible and little understood sphere of human life that is the world of sleep and dreams. Showings of DREAMINGS, which took the form of performance art pieces, were singular public ceremonies the internal dimension of which remained inaccessible to viewers, who were left to observe the artist in a deep slumber.
DREAMINGS have been held periodically since 1978. Shown in various interiors, they differ in detail yet the core idea remains the same.
"The show in front of an audience," wrote Adam Sobota, "usually lasts about one hour and consists of several basic elements. One of them is the artist, Natalia LL, who sleeps and dreams, having descended into a slumber lasting several hours. She does this lying under a sort of dome or tent, dressed in a kind of ritual costume: a long, white gown and a wreath on her head. With her light hair let down, she resembles Goplana, the water nymph of folklore as described by a certain Polish writer of the Romantic era in one of his works. The second element is the audience, whose participation does not entail more than observing what happens. The public is informed about the nature of the event and knows that the artist, Natalia LL, has ingested a certain quantity of sleeping pills to allow her to sleep and dream for a certain time. Audience members are also aware that the content of her dreams is, and will remain, inaccessible to anyone but herself. Apart from that, the audience is given some general information about art and listens to a number of other theories being put forward. Audience members also have an opportunity to see other art objects. (...) During some showings, the role of the sleeping artist is assumed by a mannequin made up to resemble her, while the artist herself reads the text" (A. Sobota, Snienie / Dreaming, "Sztuka" / "Art" monthly, 1980, no. 3, p. 32).
The artist's accenting of the mystical aspect of her "dreamings" derives from her acknowledgement of the essential role that the subconscious plays in dreaming. The most interesting "dreamings" took place in a pyramid (a reduced wooden model of the Pyramid of Cheops, built by a group of scientists on the outskirts of Wroclaw). Alongside the various scientific studies conducted on its basis, "one of the most fortunate ideas for the pyramid involved testing through sleep, because this state involves lowering subconscious defenses that censor the flow of information and thus determine the scope of perception. As a result, during sleep the human body is capable of spontaneous extra-sensual perception as it is far more open to subtle stimuli that are otherwise inaccessible to humans through conscious perception," wrote Marian Krzysztan in the text "Seans Snienia Natalii w piramidzie" / A Showing of Natalia's Dreaming in the Pyramid" (in "Energie niezidentyfikowane" / "Unidentified Energies," PERMAFO Publishing, January 1981).
Awangarda Gallery
Director: Marek Puchala
ul. Wita Stwosza 32, 50-149 Wroclaw
tel. (+48 71) 790 25 81, 790 25 86
fax (+48 71) 790 25 90
www.bwa.wroc.pl