A great catalog by Maria Pinińska-Bereś
Maria Pinińska Bereś’s catalogue in Polish and English is now available for sale at the National Museum in Wrocław!: https://sklep.mnwr.pl/
The catalog includes three individual perspectives on the artist’s art. The curators of the exhibition in the Four Domes Pavilion of the Museum of Contemporary Art share their reflections.
Heike Munder, who encountered the artist’s work in 2000 in Kraków, writes: I admire Pinińska-Bereś for her persistence in searching for and annexing subsequent spaces in which female freedom and autonomy could be realized. I see it especially in the performances that the artist has been making since the seventies.
Jarosław Suchan, who met Maria Pinińska-Bereś in 1992 during preparations for her exhibition at the Starmach Gallery in Kraków, recalls the celebration of nature and the ode to the pink flag during the performance “Author’s Standard”: It was Pinińska-Bereś’s actions, especially those carried out outdoors, that allowed me to see her work in a new light. The artist perceived nature as her refuge, a place that allowed her to be herself, to be on her own terms, outside the disciplinary power of society and official art institutions.
Małgorzata Micuła, writing about “Psycho-furniture”, discovers pop-art inspirations in the work of Maria Pinińska-Bereś: (The artist) sought means to destabilize the tradition she grew out of, and to express her presence in art, to unmask the fact that women’s history is constantly read through the prism of patriarchal culture. Pop-art turned out to be the right tool – different and innovative. It resonated with the energy of ironic, pink and white sensual works. It both allowed mockery of the dominance of the male gaze and proved helpful in the projection of femininity, behind the universal dimension of which the artist hid individual traits of her personality.
The personality of Maria Pinińska-Bereś is presented in the biographical note included in the catalogue and a number of photographs documenting completed works and performance activities.
In addition to the curators’ texts, the publication also includes essays by Agata Jakubowska, Anke Kempkes and Klara Kemp-Welch.
Graphic design: Joanna Jopkiewicz, Grupa Projektor
📸 Magdalena Lorek
(From the National Museum in Wrocław’s Facebook page)
