Opening: 16.06.2024 (Sunday), 4PM
Exhibition: 14.06–04.08.2024, Tue-Fri: 11AM–6PM, Sun: 11AM–5PM
Place: Miejska Galeria Sztuki w Łodzi – Galeria Re:Medium, Piotrkowska 113, 90-430 Lodz, Poland
Curators: Dominika Pawełczyk, Katarzyna Sagatowska
Partners: The Hestia Artistic Journey Foundation and STU ERGO Hestia S.A. and Jednostka Gallery
Encyclopaedia is a compendium of knowledge, which we refer to as a source of trustworthy, reliable information. It’s a database that dispels our doubts. It’s certainty. However, what if but a single mistake creeps into something certain and indisputable? Doesn’t it put everything else into question, prompting one to disregard it as useless? Can knowledge be objective in a world we find out more about each day? In a world where fake news are a daily occurrence?
Fake entries are bits of incorrect information in encyclopaedias, dictionaries and lexicons that have existed ever since those sources were first published. These deceitful notes were left by editors as a form of protection against copyright infringement. Some immediately raise suspicion regarding their factuality, while others would probably slip in unnoticed by most. Although these are usually singular cases, there are several publications riddled with such “mistakes”. Still, they would hardly be detected among the tens of thousands of other definitions.
Encyclopaedia is a project which comprises hundreds of such false entries found in various encyclopedias, dictionaries and lexicons from different places and time periods. Weronika Gęsicka presents all of them using manipulated stock photographs and AI-generated images. The actual publications including such entries, bought by the artist at online auctions, are also displayed. Here, the truth functions on the same grounds as fiction.
Funded by the Artistic Journey of Hestia Foundation.
Co-financed by the City of Lodz and Fotofestiwal – International Festival of Photography in Lodz.
Weronika Gęsicka, Bessa Vugo, from the ‘Encyclopaedia’ series, 2024
Weronika Gęsicka, Chaozhouxieye, from the ‘Encyclopaedia’ series, 2024