Cyclical Changes of Bad Luck

Wojciech Pukocz’s ‘Cyclical Changes of Bad Luck’ was one of the most picturesque realisations at SURVIVAL 8. A shoulder-tall house was made from plasters of wax put on an aluminium frame. Inside, there were candles burning which made the semi-transparent surface of the little house glow with warm light. At the same time, the temperature of the candles made the whole object disinte grate very slowly. The work was about the reverse of what human dreams and aspirations are built on – about anxi ety and a sense of insecurity. But it also drew attention to the fact that this reverse (negativity) is, paradoxically, a creative and ordering element. Human existence is based on antinomies. Safety coexists with anxiety; what is more, each one is a guarantor of the other. Moreover, defining things, building frames of reference, seems impossible without being founded in negativities, i.e. in what the things described are not – in their opposites.

photo: Justyna Fedec