Opening of
at Zachęta National Gallery of Art
pl. Małachowskiego 3, 00-916 Warsaw
on Friday, August 26, 2016 at 7 PM
artists: Azorro, Ewa Axelrad, Tymek Borowski, Rafał Dominik, Maurycy Gomulicki, Nicolas Grospierre, Łukasz Jastrubczak, Monika Kmita, Luxus, Mister D. i Krzysztof Skonieczny/głębokiOFF, Tomasz Mróz, Witek Orski, Zbigniew Rogalski, Gregor Różański, Jadwiga Sawicka, Janek Simon, Konrad Smoleński, Radek Szlaga, Paweł Śliwiński, Maria Toboła, Piotr Uklański
curators: Katarzyna Kołodziej, Magdalena KomornickaFor most of us wealth is still something very much desired. Hence the title of the exhibition is more of a quote, an understatement and an ambiguity. It serves as a slogan which does not actually refer to material assets but rather the lack of. The exhibition tries to trace the visual representations of wealth from the 1990s, the times of transformation when Poles went money-crazy lured by the opportunities of making a quick buck, through the period of disenchantment with the neoliberal ideas until this day. Nowadays, wealth is often a mere fantasy or an illusion, while “poverty is the new wealth”, and as such it is a generational experience, in which irony is used to cope with the longings and fears on the one hand and, on the other, serves as a tool for questioning reality.