Homeworks, 2021, Zacheta Project Room, Warsaw, Poland
curtor: Magda Kardasz
In the summer of this special year, Maciek Salamon said, When the pandemic came, it turned out that out of the things I’d been doing so far, I couldn’t (or didn’t have to) do anything. And so, after many years, I remembered that I like painting.
Salamon — a graduate of and currently a lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk — has mainly been involved in drawing, graphic art and graphic design, creating animated films and music videos, as well as music. He has also been an artistic life organiser and co-publisher of a magazine within the Krecha artistic group, curator of Gablotka Gallery, a tattoo artist and the co-founder of a cooperative that runs, among other things, a café club. According to him, academic education suppressed the natural pleasure he took from painting and it was only the strange time of the pandemic lockdown that reminded him of this. It was then that he came up with the idea of establishing the M. Salamon Portrait company, directly referencing the famous portrait company of Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, inaugurated in 1928. Salamon openly expresses his admiration for Witkacy’s work, so his undertaking can be treated as a kind of humorous homage to an older colleague. Witkiewicz wrote, ‘This year, I am showing only portraits, because no one appreciates, needs or buys my compositions, and the critics are either silent about them or write unimportant things, sometimes even nonsense, about them. A portrait can be as much a work of Pure Form as a landscape, still life, or composition — it can be, but these days, it usually is not.’
In Salamon’s case, the idea of establishing such a company was born out of also a desire to fill up the free time that as was a ‘gift’ from the pandemic (a kind of self-ironic art therapy) and from the need to support his family. In the metaphorical sense, his project is a bittersweet commentary on the economic situation of the modern day artist left to fend for himself in the difficult times of the plague.
NAGROBKI - I AM BURNING , 2018, National Art Gallery Sopot, Poland
curator: Stanislaw Ruksza
I am burning is the latest exhibition of the cult music group Nagrobki, co-created by visual artists - Maciej Salamon and Adam Witkowski.
In recent years, Nagrobki have become one of the most important phenomena of the Polish music scene. However, they successfully function at art exhibitions, in theater and film. Meeting with an enthusiastic audience reception.
The visual side of the band's work is embodied in an obsessive reference to the theme and iconography of death, contemporary vanitas, and thanatic-funeral design. In video works, sculptures, posters, album covers and T-shirts. However, they are not only an addition to musical creativity, but show conscious relations between the works and strongly reveal the paradoxical vitality of death!
In its post-artistic or post-institutional activity, Nagrobki is characterized by minimalism of means with maximum use of them.
Sopot exhibition consists of a monumental painting composition - a vault fresco of the Last Judgment by Maciek Salamon, filled with Nagrobki iconography, as well as a multi-channel installation of the title song I am burning, which uses many previously created artifacts of the Nagrobki group.
The title of the exhibition refers to the theme of fire, burned body and the Last Judgment, but also loosely to the song by Kazik Staszewski and local themes, above all the painting by Hans Memling - the most frequently viewed painting in the Tri-City.
The location at the center of the exhibition of The Last Judgment is a conscious reference to the tradition of the great painting topos and emphasizes the inevitability of today's apocalyptic premonitions and fears (e.g. ecological or socio-political).
ANOTHER YEAR IN THE URN, 2018, Trafostacja Sztuki, Szczecin, Poland
Curator: Stanislaw Ruksza
The show focuses on the visual aspect of the band’s oeuvre, obsessive references to the topic of death, contemporary vanitas and thanatophobic-funeral design. The works fea- tured in the exhibition: videos, sculptures, posters, album covers, T-shirts and other objects, are not merely an addition to the musical output of the band: they are arranged into a new narration-installation of a cemetery, showing inten- tional correlations between the works and emphasizing the paradox- ical vitality of death.
Is it worth imposing the perspective of death on life? On the other hand, is it possible not to apply such perspective if you have already begun doing so? Reflection on death – a fundamental thought that seizes other perspectives – cannot be stopped. Mortality salience never leaves the thinking indi- vidual, deeming their future life senseless or leading to the acceptance of the in- evitable (amor fati). As Socrates allegedly said: Ordinary peo- ple seem not to realize that those who really apply them- selves in the right way to philosophy are directly and of their own ac- cord preparing themselves for dying and death (Plato, Phaedo).
Wherever I am, there will be death! 2016, CSW Kronika, Bytom, Poland
Curator: Stanislaw Ruksza
Wherever I am, there will be death! is an exhibition of the cult music band Nagrobki, created by visual artists and musicians - Maciej Salamon and Adam Witkowski. During the opening, on the eve of the premiere of the new Granit album, a concert by the Nagrobki band at TSA Wolne Tory.
EARTHWORKS, 2014-15, CSW Kronika, Bytom / Contemporary Art Museum, Warsaw / Silesian Museum, Katowice, Poland
together with: Maciej Chodzinski
curator: Stnislaw Ruksza
Earthworks is the result of a long-term project carried out by Maciej Salamon and Maciej Chodziński in different regions of Poland. By showing care for the natural environment, artists treat the heritage of landart in a perverse way, implementing the bioeutanasia plan:
Firing forests, concreting meadows and other GreenWar techniques proposed by the authors are de- signed to accelerate the warming of the climate and the evaporation of the atmosphere in order to res- toration of the original, rocky surface of the planet. In the final stage of the project, the soil will be filled with salt and pouring concrete layer, thanks to which we will prevent regrowth of vegetation and we will get an even, smooth surface, effectively covering the embarrassing past of this dissolute planet. Focused on activities away from city centers, which are in fact only an apparent interference with the natural environment, they pay attention not only to how absurdly nature is destroyed by man, but also act across the utopian actions of radical defenders of nature.
Birdhouse Gallery is a project run by Maciek Salamon and Nedyalko Delchev. The project aim is to create an European network of small galleries. Instead of renting a place to create a gallery, the artists - together with workshop participants - build small mobile exhibition spaces on their own. Many people associate small galleries with birdhouses filled with small artefacts. At each workshop location, the Birdhouse Gallery ends with a public presentation / exhibition created by the gallery participants.The project aims to stimulate the imagination and support the creative ideas of children. Thanks to Birdhouse Gallery, young participants develop their artistic skills and build understanding and interest in art. So far the project take place in Belfast (Ireland), Stockholm and Umea (Sweden), Blyth (UK), Gdańsk (Poland), Prizren (Kosovo), San Sebastian (Spain), Vranje (Serbia), Zagreb (Croatia), Lublana (Slovenia) and Timisoara (Romania). Birdhouse Gallery is a part of Corners of Europe project.
Galeria Gablotka was established in March 2010 on the initiative of its founding fathers: Maciej Salamon and Tomek Wierzchowski. From the beginning of its existence, its creator has been guided by the slogan: "Praise us and our colleagues." According to this idea, the artists presenting their works in the gallery are colleagues of the founding fathers. So far, 29 exhibitions have been held in the showcase, incl. Adam Witkowski, Kuba Bielawski, Marcin Bober, Piotr Jahołkowski, Agata Nowosielska, Marcin Zawicki and Maciek Szupica. Its creators also successfully present themselves in the Showcase. The space of the Cabinet, even though it is limited to one small socialist cabinet in the former management building of the Gdańsk Shipyard, is extremely inspiring. You could see painting, drawing, installations, video and even a performance with the artist locked inside. Usually, vernissages are accompanied by concerts and endless discussions about art until dawn.
