Worlds

• object, 2022/2023

Worlds refers to the folk tradition of making ornaments from wafers, which used to be hung inside home at Christmas. Shapes of stars, the moon or the sun were cut out of wafer and modelled into openwork spheres with saliva. These delicate and small spheres were treated with utmost care so that they would last as long as possible, which was seen as a sign of the coming of good times. The wafer was a symbol of agreement, reconciliation and for- giveness; sharing it expressed the desire to be together. It was sometimes also given to pets and farm animals. Błęcki’s Worlds are much larger than the traditional ones. Wafer has been replaced by plastic plants, mostly found by the artist in the cemetery bins in Gdańsk and neighbouring towns. Here, craftsmanship meets mass production, being contrasted with the realities of those employed in countries that base their economic power on exploitative mechanisms. This is where almost all artificial plants that can be purchased in Poland come from. In Worlds, the artist attempts to connect these distant worlds, both temporally and spatially.

The work was prepared as part of the Narracje Festival in 2022.