Beauty Survival Workshop

Jolanta Wagner’s installation under the title Beauty Survival Workshop is a sizeable pyramid made of empty cosmetics packaging. As the artist explained, It was necessary to involve many people to build up this set. More than 100 women, friends and strangers alike, donated to the collection. Each of them must have been following the daily ritual of improving their appearance and well-being. Each of them must have been using creams, powders, lipsticks, eyeliners, hairsprays and perfumes, which constitute the basic “tools” used in anti-aging treatment, skin and hair rejuvenation, painting eyes, lips and nails. I have been sent empty bottles, jars and tubes. What has emerged is a collection of a dozen thousand elements. These objects are already useless and worthless, but they bear the exciting traces of past private time.
The pyramidal form of the object triggers unequivocal associations with a mausoleum. The work can be interpreted as the remains of long and time-consuming work on one’s own body as well as a symbol of persistent attempts to stop the time.

photo: Olga Jasnowska