Good Evening in Wrocław – group exhibition

What is the evening, how do we experience it, and is it indeed good for everyone? We invite you for a Good Evening in Wrocław – a collective exhibition. at BWA Wrocław Główny Gallery. It presents the essence of a Wrocław evening, using various media – photography, film, collage, sound, text and installation.

The night is darkness, darkness is invisibility – wrote Iwo Zmyślony. The evening, in turn, is a transition between the day and night. A liminal, interim phase, the seemingly short moment when everything surrounding us seems to be gradually falling asleep. But also – as many references in art and literature suggest – a time when reason sleeps and demons wake up.

When looking for references, the immediate evening-related associations are those with the German Romantics, for whom its mystery virtually defined the turn of the 18^th and 19^th centuries. Mist, fear, demons, phobias and progressive gradation of light are the first associations with the night and evening preceding it. Nowadays, in turn, it is when streetlamps, shop windows, lights and neon signs are lit, when new relationships with the surrounding world must be established – the sight and smell sharpened, hearing and touch sensitised. We attempt to blur what is between the day and night using new technologies. In cities, we escape the inevitable darkness, forgetting that darkness is something we cannot hide from. Or we… wake up and drop our masks.      

The exhibition Good Evening in Wrocław is an effect of several months of activity and talks of a working group. In search of an answer to the question What is the evening?, the members extract its essence using various media – photography, film, collage, sound, text and installation. They do it together, inspiring each other. They talk about prayers, intimacy, masks, light pollution, fear and inability. They do not act separately, but in a group, where everyone contributes to the whole.

Paweł Zasada, Agata Ciastoń and Magdalena Mądra discuss light pollution. Agata Kalinowska and Marta Borkowska immerse themselves in discovering an alternative self, like in the Freudian notion of the mask. Olga Budzan and Kamil Subzda seek reprieve in the evening prayer and spirituality created around religion. Pfishova confronts fear and inability. Łukasz Suchy and Filip Marek go beyond visuality and the sense of sight, inviting us to experience the evening through emanating sound and smell.

Good Evening in Wrocław is also a reference to the cult neon sign located on the roof opposite the main railway station, showing a friendly greeter of travellers, the smiling gentleman with a flower, raising his hat – one of Wrocław’s permanent fixtures, lit every evening to bring smiles to so many faces. It was our original inspiration for questions like What is the evening?, How do we experience the third part of day? and Is it really good for everyone?