dom.wasilewska
Trapped in Perfection - exhibition review
We have come to expect deeply sensitive subjects from Anna Rottenberg. Her current exhibition „Progress and Hygiene” is not a joking matter as well. The famous Polish curator is showing us that grand ideas can devolve very easily and rebound upon us.
Glass Man is standing in front of the main entrance to Zachęta National Gallery in Warsaw. His transparent skin reveals internal organs and the circulatory system. With his hand raised he becomes the symbol of power over his own body. Proud to be a man, gratified at his human perfection and on the right path to self-annihilation. „Progress and Hygiene” is an exhibition-essay which reveals the dark side of development, improvement and the traps of utopia.
This lengthy essay begins with an ironic story about the contemporary cult of the perfect body. Zbigniew Libera’s penis extension device like weight training apparatus is flawless caricature of modern obsessions. However, it is only a warm-up. Numerous rooms follow disclosing much more obscure subjects like eugenics, social engineering, race hygiene and extermination. It is a story about denaturalisation, where hygiene is concerned with appropriate skin tone, eye colour or nose shape. „Bathroom” painted by Luc Tuymans is one of the most intriguing and disturbing pieces. In fact the apparently clean space is a laboratory in a German concentration camp where prisoners were skinned. In this case cruelty is cunningly hidden behind a sterile and neutral layer. Unfortunately, this idea is pretty hard to catch for the average visitor. „Progress and Hygiene” is a deep didactic analysis, which is difficult to understand without prior explanations. Anda Rottenberg gives us a thought-provoking lesson, which deserves to be examined all-around.
Trapped in Perfection - exhibition review
We have come to expect deeply sensitive subjects from Anna Rottenberg. Her current exhibition „Progress and Hygiene” is not a joking matter as well. The famous Polish curator is showing us that grand ideas can devolve very easily and rebound upon us.
Glass Man is standing in front of the main entrance to Zachęta National Gallery in Warsaw. His transparent skin reveals internal organs and the circulatory system. With his hand raised he becomes the symbol of power over his own body. Proud to be a man, gratified at his human perfection and on the right path to self-annihilation. „Progress and Hygiene” is an exhibition-essay which reveals the dark side of development, improvement and the traps of utopia.
This lengthy essay begins with an ironic story about the contemporary cult of the perfect body. Zbigniew Libera’s penis extension device like weight training apparatus is flawless caricature of modern obsessions. However, it is only a warm-up. Numerous rooms follow disclosing much more obscure subjects like eugenics, social engineering, race hygiene and extermination. It is a story about denaturalisation, where hygiene is concerned with appropriate skin tone, eye colour or nose shape. „Bathroom” painted by Luc Tuymans is one of the most intriguing and disturbing pieces. In fact the apparently clean space is a laboratory in a German concentration camp where prisoners were skinned. In this case cruelty is cunningly hidden behind a sterile and neutral layer. Unfortunately, this idea is pretty hard to catch for the average visitor. „Progress and Hygiene” is a deep didactic analysis, which is difficult to understand without prior explanations. Anda Rottenberg gives us a thought-provoking lesson, which deserves to be examined all-around.