Hide and Seek
Secci is pleased to announce the first solo show by Mateusz Chorobski in Milan, opening at NOVO in Via Olmetto on March 9, 2023. The exhibition curated by Pier Paolo Pancotto in the independent experimental space of the gallery takes place until May 27, 2023. The gallery is also pleased to announce that, in conjunction with Mateusz Choróbski’s solo exhibition, the artist will inaugurate a site-specific project at Fabbrica del Vapore (Via Giulio Cesare Procaccini 4).
In both cases, research on light and the measurement of time become pivotal tools for investigating Choróbski’s artistic practice. While at the gallery the objects move clockwise, those inside la Fabbrica del Vapore move counterclockwise. One is devoted to physical objects in a private space, the other to light in a public space. The two exhibitions are connected both conceptually and in terms of medium.
The form of the object Day Wage by Mateusz Choróbski reflects the disillusioned conviction of the social hierarchy, a division into those occupying the “higher” and “lower” strata of society. It is a cylinder made from cement wastenfrom a construction site in its upper level, and melted brass coins with a nominal value of 0.01 PLN at the bottom, the total of which equals the daily “minimum wage” mandated by Polish law.
This visually austere piece is a succinct embodiment of the majority of subjects which fascinate the artist: capital determining a stratification system, the standard of living and barriers of economic exclusion; disciplinary power regulating society; analytics creating a phantasm of the average – all of this against the backdrop of late capitalism.
Apart from obvious associations with savings from one’s home budget, the accumulation of capital and the disproportionate division of resources, the form of the object also brings to mind a fragment from a bar chart – a symptomatic image of the typically sterile aesthetic of statistics.
On the one hand, statistics represent homogeneity, eradicating individuality in order to perform their analytical procedures. On the other hand, they anchor abstraction in reality by creating a sense of the irrefutability of the numbers that shape the way we view ourselves and the world around us, blurring the distinction between an individual person and uniform data, which do not require any empathy from us.
Mateusz Choróbski was born in Radomsko, Poland in 1987. He currently lives and works in Warsaw. In his artistic undertakings, Mateusz Choróbski tests various ranges and scales of artistic expression, from short films to complex arrangements in gallery spaces, or contextual activities in public spaces. A significant aspect of his work is awareness of the relationship, including picture viewer space, which is evident in the themes explored by him and influences the specific nature of his creativity. His works have been exhibited: La Fondazione, Roma (2019); Contemporary Art Center Labirynt, Lublin (2019); Wschód, Warsaw (2019); Neue Alte Brücke, Frankfurt & Union Pacific, London & Wschód, Warsaw (2018); Les Bains Douches, Alençon (2017); Kronika Centre for Contemporary Art, Bytom (2016); Contemporary Art Center Arsenał, Białystok (2015); Another Vacant Space, Berlin (2013).
Pier Paolo Pancotto is curator of the Art Club exhibition program at Villa Medici – French Academy in Rome.
Secci is pleased to announce the first solo show by Mateusz Chorobski in Milan, opening at NOVO in Via Olmetto on March 9, 2023. The exhibition curated by Pier Paolo Pancotto in the independent experimental space of the gallery takes place until May 27, 2023. The gallery is also pleased to announce that, in conjunction with Mateusz Choróbski’s solo exhibition, the artist will inaugurate a site-specific project at Fabbrica del Vapore (Via Giulio Cesare Procaccini 4).
In both cases, research on light and the measurement of time become pivotal tools for investigating Choróbski’s artistic practice. While at the gallery the objects move clockwise, those inside la Fabbrica del Vapore move counterclockwise. One is devoted to physical objects in a private space, the other to light in a public space. The two exhibitions are connected both conceptually and in terms of medium.
The form of the object Day Wage by Mateusz Choróbski reflects the disillusioned conviction of the social hierarchy, a division into those occupying the “higher” and “lower” strata of society. It is a cylinder made from cement wastenfrom a construction site in its upper level, and melted brass coins with a nominal value of 0.01 PLN at the bottom, the total of which equals the daily “minimum wage” mandated by Polish law.
This visually austere piece is a succinct embodiment of the majority of subjects which fascinate the artist: capital determining a stratification system, the standard of living and barriers of economic exclusion; disciplinary power regulating society; analytics creating a phantasm of the average – all of this against the backdrop of late capitalism.
Apart from obvious associations with savings from one’s home budget, the accumulation of capital and the disproportionate division of resources, the form of the object also brings to mind a fragment from a bar chart – a symptomatic image of the typically sterile aesthetic of statistics.
On the one hand, statistics represent homogeneity, eradicating individuality in order to perform their analytical procedures. On the other hand, they anchor abstraction in reality by creating a sense of the irrefutability of the numbers that shape the way we view ourselves and the world around us, blurring the distinction between an individual person and uniform data, which do not require any empathy from us.
Mateusz Choróbski was born in Radomsko, Poland in 1987. He currently lives and works in Warsaw. In his artistic undertakings, Mateusz Choróbski tests various ranges and scales of artistic expression, from short films to complex arrangements in gallery spaces, or contextual activities in public spaces. A significant aspect of his work is awareness of the relationship, including picture viewer space, which is evident in the themes explored by him and influences the specific nature of his creativity. His works have been exhibited: La Fondazione, Roma (2019); Contemporary Art Center Labirynt, Lublin (2019); Wschód, Warsaw (2019); Neue Alte Brücke, Frankfurt & Union Pacific, London & Wschód, Warsaw (2018); Les Bains Douches, Alençon (2017); Kronika Centre for Contemporary Art, Bytom (2016); Contemporary Art Center Arsenał, Białystok (2015); Another Vacant Space, Berlin (2013).
Pier Paolo Pancotto is curator of the Art Club exhibition program at Villa Medici – French Academy in Rome.