WARSAW — Strolling into A Tiger got here into the Backyard: Artwork of Maria Prymachenko on the Museum of Trendy Artwork in Warsaw appears like getting into a kaleidoscope. Hanging salon-style and on a round show system designed particularly for the exhibition, the work — typically depicting anthropomorphized animals — look like floating, encouraging us to wander in a dreamlike, nonlinear vogue. Curved benches with headrests organized within the heart of the room invite not solely extended viewing but additionally relaxation, reflection, and play. Throughout my go to, a mom breastfed her child whereas youngsters ambled close by.
If not for the wall textual content, labels, and guided excursions sometimes passing by means of in Polish, English, and Ukrainian, it could be straightforward to overlook the exhibition is in a museum and never a play and relaxation space for youngsters and adults alike. That is the primary main present in Poland of the late Ukrainian artist Maria Prymachenko, and its curation enhances her works by means of an surroundings that’s designed to spark creativeness and pleasure.
Prymachenko’s life was marked by adversity and grief: She suffered from polio all through her childhood, misplaced shut household throughout World Conflict II, skilled poverty and famine on a kolkhoz, and lived in a area immediately impacted by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe. Within the midst of her hardship, she created vibrant works which might be a testomony to her great creativeness. Closely impressed by the folks artwork of the Polesia area in Ukraine, the place she spent most of her life, Prymachenko blended conventional embroidery patterns and designs with a surreal and nearly childlike strategy to depicting nature.
In A Tiger got here into the Backyard, winged and humpbacked horses fly across the Earth whereas clothed penguins go to Polesia to see how the younger individuals there dance. Whereas this uncommon and otherworldly menagerie appears playful and festive, the works’ titles typically reveal a extra sinister story by means of which the artist’s anthropomorphized animals touch upon or mock the absurdity and dangerous penalties of human habits. As such, a neon fowl conversing amicably with a frog is titled “The partridge talks to the frog. The frog says, ‘Woe to us, We’ve nowhere to wash: the water is polluted. We’re in hassle!’” (1994). In the meantime, a wide-eyed leonine determine surrounded by snakes is titled “Nuclear Conflict – Could it’s cursed! Could individuals not comprehend it, And shed no tears!” (1989).
Whereas the Soviet Union’s and now Russia’s crimes in opposition to humanity are current all through the titles and wall textual content — and within the tales of Ukrainians visiting the museum and now residing in Warsaw — the curators have chosen to emphasise creativity and play. Along with the unconventional hold and alluring benches, one of many partitions is magnetized and youngsters are inspired to collage magnets of Prymachenko’s fantastical animals.
Regardless of being one among Ukraine’s best-known artists, Prymachenko solely lately obtained worldwide consideration when quite a lot of her work had been destroyed in a fireplace on the Native Historical past Museum in Ivankiv in 2022 throughout Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. The assault not solely amplified the power of her work as an emblem of Ukraine’s nationwide identification and cultural heritage, but additionally inspired curators and viewers to contemplate what makes them so highly effective. Displayed in a museum that has supported Ukrainian refugees and households, the exhibition’s curation emphasizes a central tenet of Prymachenko’s work: Play, humor, and creativity are essential to survival, significantly within the darkest instances. It’s onerous to think about a mightier type of resistance than that.
A Tiger got here into the Backyard: Artwork of Maria Prymachenko continues on the Museum of Trendy Artwork in Warsaw (Wybrzeże Kościuszkowskie 22, Warsaw, Poland) by means of July 14. The exhibition was curated by Szymon Maliborski and Eduard Dymshyts.