Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More

Konrad Smoleński represents Poland at the Venice Art Biennale 2013. His monumental installation in the Polish Pavilion in the Biennale’s Giardini is titled Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More. The work is a continuation of the previous explorations of Konrad Smoleński, who focuses his interest on sound. Two church bells that have been cast especially for this exhibition are at the center of the installation. Two walls of loudspeakers and other elements complete the work. In regular intervals, the traditional bronze bells, full-range speakers and other sonorous objects play a symphony. The create both a visual and aural experience, where the delaying and modifying of the initial sound of the bell is important. The exhibition Konrad Smoleński: Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More is curated by Daniel Muzyczuk and Agnieszka Pindera.
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Drama House
File Festival
“Drama house” is a house when the simple ring at the doorbell can have unpredictable consequences; event, one is stranger then another and in the same time all, what happens with habitants belongs to everyday life. Sometimes these circumstances are a little bit exaggerated. Spectator stands in front of low fence with a door-gate. There are 8 doorbells on it. The act of ringing provokes an action in an apartment window. Based on chance and the choices that viewers make, the project explores the contemporary trends in the construction of a narrative and the interplay between diverse informative sub-layers effected through the impact of digital, non-linear media. It also questions the very process of story telling and at the same time considers the way of audience reading. It investigates the differences of individual and collective perception. In other words, the sequence and choices that each viewer selects reflect his own perspectives and behavioral patterns, thus makes the viewer much more than an active participant. By interacting with the installation the viewer is engaged in the creative process: re-telling the ever-changing story through the utilization of the primary capability of the digitization: reshaping the information. Therefore, each participant walks away with a unique, slightly different vision, each shaped according to his own choices and directions. Interactive media and the digital environment of the DH and its narrative function through a recognizable metaphor that makes access to the information meaningful: a house as a conceptual society model and an apartment as a private space. This reference transforms the objects and stories in the project into the metaphors and reminds us of the art cultural function: as a site of memory of the social collective imagination and as a site of representation and power.