As part of the Correnti project, this second chapter focuses on the fluctuations of the mind.
It explores how our memories are built and unraveled, how they resurface or disappear, and how our emotions impact these memories consciously or unconsciously.
Marzena Nowak’s solo show at the gallery is entitled Correnti II - Blue. In the English language, the word blue is used to express a state of sadness or melancholy, which can be found in blues music or also in the expression blue Monday. This word carries a universe of feelings and sensations leading to a fluctuation, a wobbling of the spirit. Correnti – currents – refers to the waves of feelings that alternate throughout the day. They represent the movements performed by the mind during life, going through a time of memories, from past to present and to future desires.
In her artistic research, Marzena Nowak embodies these fleeting and abstract concepts. She makes them visible by creating a set of emotions and paths of the mind. Indeed, the series of paintings displayed in the exhibition has been conceived in a key moment of recent history: the lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. The lines drawn on carbon paper express a feeling of unknown emotions, actual sensations that are perceived by bodies even if not yet completely understood... Nowak considers these lines as ‘distant lands, maps of universes and stars’.
The drawn spaces are filled with fragments of color that cover symbolically a structure, in the same way, clothes cover the skin. They embody dream worlds, fluctuant fantasies, and desires for safety, that a lot of people experienced during the health crisis between 2020 and 2021. They are pictured in Nowak’s painting in an almost playful form as if they were puzzle pieces to assemble. The lines woven on the connection of the subconscious, between dream and reality, also symbolize the psychological structure of the creative process. This sense of tireless activity also emerges through physicality and body gestures that connect humankind with its own mind and emotions.
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Photos by Matteo Pasin
Marzena Nowak
Born in 1977 in Piaseczno, Poland, she lives and works between Warsaw and Casablanca.
Her artistic research focuses mainly on the relationship between memory and imagination, between autobiography and the dream world. Nowak's works, which are to be contextualized in the socio-historical context of the political changes of the 1980s, play with the forms of sensory perception and with the intertwining of the burdens of everyday life and the desire to take refuge in fantasy.
She has exhibited in numerous international galleries and museums including mumok - Museum Modernet Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien (2021); Neuer Kunstvercin Wien (2018); Pori Art Museum, Pori (2016); CAC - Centro d'Arte Contemporanea, Vilnius (2015); Museo d'Arte Moderna di Varsavia (2014); Salzburger Kunstverein, Kunstlerhaus di Salisburgo (2011); CoCA Center of Contemporary Art Toru (2011).