Galeria Jednostka
Andersa 13
00-159 Warszawa
1–17.10.2020
The opening of the exhibition is taking place during Warsaw Gallery Weekend 2020 1–4.10.2020
During WGW gallery is open:
Thursday–Sunday 11 a.m – 7 p.m
Outside WGW gallery is open:
Tuesday–Saturday 2 – 6 p.m.
The series of works is based on the book ‘Zhenshchina’ (transcription of the Russian word for ‘woman’), which Magda Hueckel found at an antiques market in Tbilisi. The author of the original ‘Das Weib in der Natur- und Völkerkunde’, published in 1885, was Hermann Heinrich Ploss, an anthropologist and gynaecologist, founder of modern paediatrics and gynaecology. The publication is a peculiar compendium of knowledge about women from around the world. It analyses various aspects of womanhood, such as anatomy, physiology, sexuality, social position, cultural role and the then prevailing traditions. The book has been reprinted twelve times in various languages and supplemented with numerous illustrations.
Being scientific in nature and considered progressive by the contemporaries, nowadays the nineteenth-century narrative causes distress, with the role of a woman reduced to procreative functions. The analysis of the female corporeality is intertwined with a socio-cultural study of traditions, superstitions and rituals. The book is lavishly illustrated with brutal scenes, depicting medical practices, pathologies and violent habits (death by burning, stigmatisation of widows, circumcision, scarification, amputation of breasts and fingers). The most perplexing, however, is the fact that many of the rituals and stereotypes described in the book have survived to this day.
Magda Hueckel, fascinated by the archival images, deconstructs them. She is filling the empty pages of the book with manipulated images, creating her own – thirteenth – grotesque edition of the publication.
Magda Hueckel (born in 1978)
Visual artist. Photography is the central focus of Gęsicka’s art. She also creates objects and artefacts. Her projects address topics related to memory, its mechanisms, and the related scientific and pseudoscientific theories. She often works with archival materials. A winner of many awards including Paszport Polityki Award for Visual Arts category (2019), EMOP Arendt Award (2019), Foam Talent (2017). Her works have been exhibited worldwide. Gęsicka’s works can be found in prestigious collections including Dom Museum Wien, Vienna, Austria; Arendt Collection, Luxemburg; MuFo Museum of Photography, Cracow, Poland; Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, Germany.
Partners: Akademia Humanistyczno-Ekonomiczna w Łodzi, Artesola Gallery, Pracownia oprawy
The exhibition is part of the Warsaw Gallery Weekend 2020. During the Warsaw Gallery Weekend 2020 we will also show Weronika Gęsicka’s ‘CLIFFHANGER’ exhibition. READ MORE…
Exhibition documentation