CONFUSION – WERONIKA GĘSICKA
exhibition curators: Maga Ćwieluch, Katarzyna Sagatowska
Odessa Photo Days – Invogue Art Gallery, Odessa (Ukraine) – 17.04 – 12.05.2019
Dymchuk Gallery, Kiev (Ukraine) – 25.07 – 18.08.2019
Tbilisi Photo Festival – G. Leonidze Literature Museum, Tbilisi (Georgia) – 15.09 – 21.09.2019
Seeing smiles of the photography heroes, we smile ourselves. Convinced that the presented situation is an idyllic family portrait. In just a moment, we begin to realize that the picture is not as it seemed a minute ago. Was it the same before getting into her art studio? She is attracted to American photography from the 1950s and 1960s, featuring happy families, couples in love, funny and cheerful party mates. Probably the vast majority of these scenes were staged to duplicate and confirm the American myth in which everything goes smoothly, the flawless reality creates smiling faces and perfect relationships. Thanks to the effective digital processing, Weronika Gesicka creates confusion. Not only does she cast doubt on the presented scenes, but also asks us – viewers, about family relationships or their absence, about identity, loneliness and needs – regardless of the time and place in which we live. In her works we see the world and ourselves, as in a crooked mirror.
The kaleidoscope of wonderful scenes completes part of the Collection of eloquent objects. Everyday items, embodied by Gesicka, originated from her inspiration and her own experience. For the viewer, however, they are impersonal, and due to this, it creates a universal struggle with different types of stereotypes, phobias, fears and fetishes. One can not look at the works of Weronika Gesicka dispassionately. We smile again. Gesicka amuses us with her visual efficiency – extremely accurate photomontage and carefully processed objects. Forsaking us with reflection, it provokes us to set ourselves in her story.
Exhibition consists of the works from the following series: Traces (2015-2018) and Collection (2018-2019).