EXHIBITION: HUBERT CZEREPOK. ETERNAL FLAME
OPENING: 02/08/2024, 18.00
Curator: Sylwia Szymaniak, exhibition coordination: Ewa Chacianowska
August 3, 2024 (Saturday), 12:00 Curator guided tour
The exhibition “Eternal Flame” by Hubert Czerepok focuses on the symbolism that creates our national identity. The artist asks questions about whether symbols must be related to a specific place, specific events and people – or whether they can constitute value/energy enabling the constitution of a national community outside the geopolitical context. In the works prepared for the exhibition, the artist will attempt to explore how the spirit can be a vehicle for the state. Is national identity able to endure and develop without the physical presence of the country, without the material presence of objects of worship and cult? How did symbols of tradition and culture rooted in 19th-century emigration become for Poles the most important and inalienable part of their national identity?
The “Eternal Flame” exhibition at the Arsenał Gallery in Białystok turns to the mysterious idea of Towianism, originating from the area currently located at the intersection of the borders of Poland, Lithuania and Belarus, where mutual influences and exchange between cultures have played and continue to play an important role.
The artist traces the sources of concepts that constitute our consciousness, looks for reflections of myths in today’s reality, pointing out how often we are immersed in the past in the simplest behaviors. The exhibition will also be an attempt to define the role and place of our nation in the consciousness of 19th-century and today’s Europe. The exhibition will create a multi-threaded story that began in Poland without its own borders, a story that continues to this day, forcing us to constantly redefine and analyze identity.
Hubert Czerepok is a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań, Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht, Higher Institute for Fine Arts in Antwerp. He had many individual exhibitions in Poland and abroad, including: “The Beginning” at Zachęta – National Gallery of Art in Warsaw (2017), “History and Utopia” at the Arsenał Gallery in Białystok (2013); “Lux Aeterna” at Galeria Żak | Branicka in Berlin (2012); “Devil’s Island” at La Criée center d’art contemporain in Rennes (2009); he has also presented his works as part of numerous events and group exhibitions, including the 19th Biennial in Sydney “You Imagine What You Desire” (2014) and “Cultural Transference” at EFA Project Space / The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts in New York (2012 ). Currently, he is a professor at the Academy of Art in Szczecin, where he runs the Experimental Film Studio at the Faculty of Media Art, Photography and Experimental Film.
Further information: https://galeria-arsenal.pl/wystawy/hubert-czerepok-wieczny-plomien