The exhibition unfolds the notion of queerness, which by its nature has no single definition and is in a perpetual transition. Its understanding, in my definition, is to set things in a constant flux. If something can no longer change, it means that it is not queer. The exhibition in the hotel room features a variety of works from drawings to the so-called non-art objects that encapsulate various strategies of resistance that I have been able to recognize over the years. Some are close to me, some of them distant, and each of them also exists outside the queer environment and do not have to be categorized. All of them refer to the blurring of boundaries between everyday life and art, portraying how strategies tied to performance can be used to move across social realities, entering and exiting diverse realms, and making connections between remote points (such as my teenage dream of becoming a model in New York City).
The starting point in the exhibition is a copy of Vogue made by me, which is a personal interpretation of a globally recognised title that has co-created the canon of female beauty. Other objects, such as the figurine of a goat Capricorn situated on a plate with a landscape, show an impossible attempt to unite two dimensions, while the nail polish under the champagne glass plays on the fear behind institutionalising queerness which, in theory, escapes borders at all times. Simultaneously, the very idea of the exhibition conveys the spirit of queerness, which is perpetually based on contradictions and, in this case, being fascinated with the world of fashion and at the same time questioning its essence, being against the art market and simultaneously lured by the possibility of selling art, and so on.
The structure of the exhibition is based on two poles, Carrie Bradshaw and I, which allows us to oscillate within the spectrum that arises between us, thereby demonstrating the foundations of non-binary thinking. If I were just myself, or just Carrie, it would mean that I was moving along a singular axis, making it impossible to maintain fluidity. I treat Carrie as a fading symbol of pop culture that was contemporary until recently, now becoming obsolete. Watching the series 'Sex and the City' (the English title can also be interpreted as 'Gender and the City') today, one senses the artificiality of the reality it depicts, as socio-economic realms have undergone numerous transformations since the 1990s. Nowadays, Carrie Bradshaw's problems seem trivial and frivolous. They do not consider the numerous crises that confront the modern world. At the same time, her character became a symbol of the emancipation of women, who describe the world from a perspective which was formerly absent, as I am currently doing for Vogue Poland's series of columns titled 'Filipka and the City'. Like Orlando in Virginia Woolf's novel, Carrie and I live in disparate temporalities and places, but we are driven by the same idea - to introduce a new perspective that sustains the fluctuating reality.
Maintaining the aesthetics of Renaissance painting, Agata Słowak's work uses allegory to complement the reflection on pure fluidity. It demonstrates coexistence, mutual love and the integrity of two versions of the same person, each expressing their desire in different ways. In its reading, I see glimpses of something that has been bothering me incessantly and that I have yet to understand - how, through one's own blurring, one can catch the sharp vision of a reality that is shared.
Filipka
Filipka Rutkowska, Different Figures in the Same Character, 2023, Hotel Warszawa Art Fair, photo Ewa Szatybełko