Ship of Fools

[…] In the installation Ship of Fools, Agata Jarosławiec and Grzegorz Kumorek revisit Plato’s allegory about a ship with a dysfunctional crew, which has been subject to numerous redefinitions, e.g. by Sebastian Brant in the 15th century or Michel Foucault in the 20th century. Using materials that can be typically found in a hospital, the artist’s work symbolically addresses the subject of social exclusion of sick, dependent people, maladjusted to the requirements of society and deviating from what is considered acceptable and desirable. However, Jarosławiec and Kumorek’s vision of the ship offers no hope – all that is left is elements of the wreck, prompting the viewer to think about who would board the ship today. This reference to a classical topos of the Mediterranean culture and its reinterpretation seems to suggest a vision of civilisation as a looped history of exclusion. […]

Małgorzata Miśniakiewicz: Concealed. In: Art Reviev SURVIVAL 17. Catalogue, Wrocław 2019, p. 54-55.

 

photo: Małgorzata Kujda