Kasia Fudakowski. Gallery Power LTD

The art of Kasia Fudakowski explores the relationship between power, energy, and culture. In her first solo exhibition in Poland, visitors will have the opportunity to interact with kinetic glass sculptures equipped with motors and lights. Switching each sculpture on and off enables us to discover contemporary and historical stories about power. But watch out! The operation time of each sculpture is programmed and determined by its energy consumption. Every time a sculpture is activated, more of its limited supply of energy is used up.

The exhibition features seven sculptures. Each tells a different story and addresses past or current events and phenomena, but all are connected to each other through a wiring system. The sculptures use a minimal amount of energy, except for the sculpture titled Out of Your Hands, which is equipped with an old 2000W spotlight controlled by an external mechanism. In this way, Fudakowski wishes to draw attention to the fact that art and culture are not independent of external influences.

The topic of limited resources is one of the main themes in the program of SIC! BWA Wrocław Gallery. Gallery Power LTD exhibition fits into this theme very well. It was inspired by Barry Lord’s book Art & Energy. The author argues that culture and art are inextricably linked to the energy resources of our planet and the power structures that manage these resources. The exhibition illustrates how the culture we create and in which we participate is dependent on these structures.

Gallery Power LTD exhibition is like an experiment—the viewers are the ones who
decide how long it will last. The energy-consuming works of art are subject to
strict limits on how much power they can consume. At the entrance and exit of
the gallery, an e-ink screen displays information on how long the sculptures
will continue to operate —counting down the
remaining days, hours and minutes. The capacity of the sculptures to “work” is
therefore dependent on both the energy provided by the gallery and the
visitors’ activity. The more involved the viewers become, the more energy gets
used and this results in less time being left for other people to experience
the exhibition.

The first presentation of this exhibition took place in 2023 at the ChertLüdde Gallery in Berlin.