Space is not just outside. It is inside each and every one of us, somewhere between a real and a virtual sense of reality. Attempts to convey the human perception of the modern world have become new forms and forms of art, where multimedia objects have to some extent gradually replaced static works. Famous Polish artist and media artist Patricia Piwosz presented her own view on modern media art at the Serhiy Korolyov Museum of Cosmonautics. The exhibition «Journey of Autopoetry» is a project embodied by the Polish artist Patricia Piwosz. The need to implement the project arose as a need to fill the void created by the requirement of digitization of culture

In the era of the pandemic, the artist and her co-creators shifted the emphasis in the activity and in the artistic expression turned to the form of exhibitions, where the objects function in close contact with the recipient, while maintaining the necessary distance. Thanks to interactive Internet tools and new media, the exhibition design and space have expanded.

The project was actually started thanks to the research included in Patricia’s dissertation. As the level, method and form of communication changed during the pandemic, the artist was interested in those art forms that are marked by a performative element. This format makes it possible to create «sensory structures» – a space where the work of art and the viewer are an integral part of one artistic situation.

Since 2014, the media artist has been collaborating with Ukrainian artists – artists, composers, dancers. This made it possible to involve not only artists from European countries, but also Ukrainian colleagues in the Journey of Autopoetry project, and to create performances, human installations, sculptures, tactile objects and costumes.

According to the artist herself, travel is any movement and a big change. Patricia’s main aspiration is to change the traditional attitude towards sculpture or a work of fine art as a static object that cannot be touched or touched tactilely.

That’s why the exhibition includes objects that consist of video art, music that visitors hear, and QR codes with compositions and information about the study. The premiere of the exhibition «Journey of Autopoetry» took place in Poznan in the summer of 2021, but the central object of the presentation at the Museum of Cosmonautics was the video «Sensory Structures», which premiered here in Zhytomyr.

For Patricia, the principle is that her exhibition is interactive, and anyone who interacts with her can become part of the art object. «This format brings a person closer to art, gives the opportunity to understand, transfer experience, feelings. Feelings are the most important in a person’s relationship with art and with other people», said the media artist.

«Quarantine during a pandemic was a very difficult time. Because all my creativity and cultural research is based on interactions, meetings, I wrote a lot in my research about the moments of meetings or their absence, because not only the recipient needs an art product, but also the product needs a recipient. So I started analyzing the void. What is it? There were various challenges during the pandemic, and we learned to find solutions to the situations in which we found ourselves. I have developed several methods of presenting art that can be used during a pandemic outbreak. It is currently an experiment with intangible art – an installation that consists of sound. There is an object in the presentation that has a voice that appeals to us, but we can also go beyond the material understanding of art», said the artist.

Patricia’s work focuses on man, his reflections on the world. However, the media artist is convinced that everything is social, and so is art. «One cannot assume that creativity can be outside society. There is always a certain connection, art has a context that influences creativity, the use of certain techniques», said the author, who uses multidisciplinary activities to stimulate all the senses of visitors.

«For me, Zhytomyr is a city inside Ukraine, where there is outer space. This is a city that I discovered thanks to the Serhiy Korolyov Museum of Cosmonautics. The opportunity to make a presentation here seems to me to be a strong accent and an opportunity to show Europe this place where culture is presented in a broad sense, not limited to space», Patricia shared her impressions.

Zhytomyr residents can see the exposition of works by artist and media artist Patricia Piwosz and create an idea of modern European media art at the Serhiy Korolyov Museum of Cosmonautics until Saturday, October 9, inclusive.
Reference The Journey of Autopoetry project was implemented in partnership with the Serhiy Korolyov Cosmonautics Museum and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute (IAM).