SUITCASE - night LUGGAGE… DREAM

Professor Zbigniew Szot from the University of Arts in Poznań started to implement his project "Suitcase" at the beginning of the pandemic. Like many of us, he felt unable to interact with other creators during the lockdown, so he invited artist friends to meet on the Internet and send their selected works. The works of 20 authors from all over the world were put into a wooden Suitcase by Szot and released into the world. The Suitcase was, among others at the 17th Athens Digital Arts Festival in Greece, at the S. I. Witkiewicz Theatre in Zakopane, R + Gallery in Szczecin. The ninth stop is the Film School. From Łódź, The Suitcase will travel to Canada.

We were invited by Zbigniew Szot to put our voice into the Suitcase - the voice of the Film School. We decided to build it around the theme of pandemic dreams, narratives and stories dictated by dreams, metaphorically depicting the world of inner experiences of the last two years.

What pandemic landscape was created by the works sent by students and lecturers? What collective emotions were revealed by the collected projects? What did we become scared of during the pandemic? What did we notice? Did we recover anything? And finally: what did our dreams reveal?

The exhibition SUITCASE - night LUGGAGE ... DREAM shows a diverse world, made of what is indescribable and difficult to express. The multitude of forms and voices reveal a cornucopia of feelings, fears and hopes: screaming, delight, terror, relief, fear, loss, longing for freedom, the need for community, contact with nature and the body. Private performances take place right next door: in front of the mirror, outside the window, in the corner. Artists, like the Dadaist artists of the past, free the everyday from the assigned meanings, play with fear, enclose their own faces, bodies and objects in fancy quotation marks. Private shows on the boards of flats and self-narratives created out of the longing for the recipient are creative gestures resulting from limitations of space and stretching of time. These forms tell us about the new artistic reality of the last two years, which slowly and perhaps for good, redefines the concept of the work and the role of the artist.

Because what if the pandemic really gives away the field to imagination and subconsciousness? What if, by separating them from external reality, it offers artists a real treasure - unlimited access to their interiors?

Małgorzata Stasiak

DREAM ... DREAM ... only THEN are you really ALONE /
Grzegorz Małecki ... & - / gopher /

Artists participating in the exhibition SUITCASE - night LUGGAGE ... DREAM:
Olga Bejm, Maciej Bernaś, Aleksander Błoński, Maciej Błoński, Magdalena Botor, Klaudia Bochniak, Konrad Brzozowski, Basia Budniak, Paulina Byczek, Aleksandra Chrapowicka, Adrian Cieszkowski, Jan Cisiecki & Jakub Wójcik WIDOK KOLEKTYW, Estella Dandyk, Maja Drząszcz, Darek Foksowski, Julia Fukiet, Robert Gliński, Daria Górniewska, Mateusz Hartman, Krzysztof Hejke, Magdalena Kacperek, Tymoteusz Kałużewski, Anna Kazimierczak, Jędrek Kocjan, Tomasz Komorowski, Marcin Korbus, Dominik Kotlarz, Piotr Kotlicki, Szymon Kowalczyk, Michał Krzyczkowski, Kuduaty & Friend Oneironauta, Diana Kulińska, Izabela Łapińska, Katarzyna Łukasiewicz, Grzegorz Małecki, Piotr Małecki, Piotr Milczarek, Aleksandra Mrówczyńska, Matylda Nieżegorodcew, Maria Nitek, Magdalena Nowicka, Marta Ossowska, Karolina Ozimek, Grzegorz Piotrowski, Anna Poreda, Aleksandra Skowrońska, Karolina Smolka, Agnieszka Sochal , Małgorzata Stasiak & Katarzyna Boniecka, Martyna Sumisławska, Zuzanna Szor, Weronika Szyma, Michał Wąsik, Son and a Witak, Pola Włodarczyk, Barbara Woźniczka, Asia Żybul

"Many years ago, I became the owner of an old wooden suitcase. I do not know who it belonged to and I do not know how many years it had accompanied people on their travels. But I know that for the last 15 years, it has been lying in my studio - probably waiting for the idea that was born in my head about a year ago. Nowadays, during the COVID-19 threat, the word “travel” has begun to take on a completely different meaning. Having lived in isolation for many months, we have created together an autonomous collection of works, dedicated only to this suitcase, which we now send on a journey. The works and the suitcase are inseparable from each other. I would like this “kit” to visit each of us and be presented in the places chosen by you. It may be a gallery, apartment, school, university or private studio. I would also like to ask you all to leave your “sign” on the lid of the suitcase. This could be a sticker, stamp or other form of artistic activity, which will be an individual trace of each of us. I would like to thank everyone who has accepted the invitation to a joint artistic journey. I want to thank everyone who has supported me in this endeavour. Without you, this project would have just remained in my head. " Supplement to the SUITCASE project: "On April 19, 2021, the Suitcase set off on an artistic journey. The exhibition at the Conservatory Gallery of the Lodz Film School is the ninth stop on this journey. Until now, the Suitcase was a symbol of escaping the restrictions resulting from the COVID 19 pandemic. However, on February 24, 2022, the project took on a completely different meaning for me. Russian troops invaded Ukraine and contributed to the largest mass emigration of people in Europe since World War II. The silence of the pandemic was replaced by the explosion of bombs and the crying of Ukrainian mothers and their children. That is why I want to dedicate this project from now on to all those who were forced to leave their homes due to the rogue actions of Putin's Russia. "
Prof. Zbigniew Szot, Faculty of Painting and Drawing / Magdalena Abakanowicz University of Arts in Poznań

Artists participating in the SUITCASE project:
David Aleksidze, Zbigniew Bajek, Andrzej Banachowicz, Grzegorz Chojnacki, Ulrika Eller-Rűter, Krzysztof Gliszczyński, Andreas Guskos, Zbyněk Janáček, Mirosława Jarmołowicz, Robert Jundo, Wojciech Kopeć, Jacek Kornacki, Dominika Krechowicz, Bogusława Koszałka, Arkadiusz Marcinkowski, Bronka Nowicka, Grzegorz Nowicki, Józef Nowicki, Maciej Osmycki, Yasuyuki Saegusa, Marek Sibinský, Witold Stelmachniewicz, Zbigniew Szot, Zdzisław Wiatr

Set design and arrangement of the exhibition: Grzegorz Małecki