Curatorial walk-through of the “Re-enchanting the World” exhibition
Join us online for a guided tour of Małgorzata Mirga-Tas’s Re-enchanting the World exhibition. Curators Wojciech Szymański and Joanna Warsza will walk through the ‘picture palace’ created by the artist in the Polish Pavilion at this year’s Biennale Arte in Venice.
The video produced by Kijora Film for Zachęta — National Gallery of Art
video realization: Anna Zakrzewska
photography: Magda Seweryn
sound: Tomasz Filiks
editing: Marcin Wiese
video production: Tomasz Filiks
Re-enchanting the World is Małgorzata Mirga-Tas’s manifesto on Roma identity and art, drawing inspiration from the astrological frescos of the Palazzo Schifanoia in Ferrara, Italy, one of the most mysterious buildings in European architecture. The artist constructs her own version of the Renaissance palace interior in the Polish Pavilion; in reference to the title of this year’s Biennale Arte (The Milk of Dreams), she creates a magical world, a kind of temporary and interim shelter for the viewer — an asylum offering hope and respite.
The monumental installation which fills the space of the Polish Pavilion consists of twelve large-format textiles drawing from the famous cycle of frescoes from the Renaissance Palazzo Schifanoia. The symbols of the palace interior, as well as its layout and form, are the artist’s visual and ideological reference points. Małgorzata Mirga-Tas uses representations from Schifanoia, but transforms key motifs in European art history by inserting representations of Polish–Roma culture and reversing the stereotypical narrative.
Re-enchanting the World is based on the idea of transnationality, cyclicality and the change of appropriated meanings, proposing a new narrative about the constant cultural migration of images and mutual influences between Roma, Polish and European cultures. The ‘reenchantment’ of the title, inspired by Silvia Federici’s book Re-enchanting the World: Feminism and the Politics of the Commons (2018), is a non-violent process to change the world’s errant paths, lift the evil spell from the world, and help regain a sense of community and rebuild relationships with others.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue edited by Wojciech Szymański and Joanna Warsza, which, in addition to the curators’ texts includes essays by specially invited writers (Ali Smith, Damian Le Bas, scholar Ethel Brooks), and poems by Teresa Mirga and Jan Mirga. The book can be purchased online.
POLISH PAVILION AT THE 59TH INTERNATIONAL ART EXHIBITION — LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA
Venice, 23 April–27 November 2022
Małgorzata Mirga-Tas
Re-enchanting the World
curators: Wojciech Szymański and Joanna Warsza
organiser: Zachęta — National Gallery of Art
exhibition partners: Adam Mickiewicz Institute, European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (ERIAC)
publication supported by the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program
collaboration: Polish Institute in Rome
media patronage: Vogue Poland
photo: Daniel Rumiancew, 2022