EXHIBITION: MECHANICAL LOCUSTS. WOJTEK ULRICH

OPENING: 04/10/2024, 18.00

The aim of the project is not to “keep alive” the cultural industry by providing new, sophisticated forms of entertainment. 
Wojtek Ulrich 

Mechanical Locusts, Wojtek Ulrich’s latest exhibition, focuses on his exploration of reality and illusion and the changing cultural determinants in society throughout history. He creates situations, models or objects that take the form of an experiment to test how truth can be artificially generated. Of great importance here is AI, but also the process of hybridisation of the human body in a transhumanist reality.

One of the characteristics of Wojtek Ulrich’s practice is the shortening of the distance between the artist and the viewer, as well as a constant concern that most of us strive for a sense of mental balance and stability due to the unchanging naivety of the human species.

The artist returns to Wrocław with a new project. This time, his intention is to answer questions about the imperfections of reality. One of them is the failure of civilization to keep pace with technology. As he blatantly puts it, “We use religion and mythology to justify our ideas and to always be on the ‘right side.’” Ulrich leads us through the cellar of civilisation, debunking common myths and, as is his wont, suggesting alternative scenarios for the future. As he himself emphasises, it is not the aesthetic problems that concern him, but the conceptual field of action, necessarily created on his own terms.

Mechanical Locusts

When we enter “this” world, we should put rose-tinted glasses and a plastic bag in our pockets, just in case. If we are expecting something exciting, something breathtaking, we are most likely in for a surprise. Will it be a good one? Well, that depends on the viewer.

The values we are used to no longer matter. The aim of the project is not to “keep alive” the cultural industry by providing new, sophisticated forms of entertainment. There will be no competition of whose truths and reflections are supreme. The field of conceptual action is paramount, but on its own terms. We are shown a world that can only be felt if we are brave enough to pluck with our bare hands all that is unburnable but still hot from the fire of events. And if we are, the conversation will unfold in such a way that we will see ourselves from a different angle.

We may think that we know what cruelty is, that we have an idea of the civilisation of the future, of human nature and its wondrous transformations. Yet upon entering the “chamber”, some of us may feel fear and anxiety that everything we believe in, what is best in us, is a myth created to make us feel better. But others may feel a sense of peace and stability because of the immutability of human naivety.

The works are “wet and rough” and the events may seem familiar. It cannot be otherwise, as we are led through the cellar of civilisation to see how easy it is for history to come full circle. By creating a perfect copy of a situation and placing it in its proper place, are we returning to the original? Or have we already become the original, only in another dimension? The replica of the chair on which Rudolf Hoess was hanged is just one example that provokes us to rethink our values.

The exhibition may seem unusual, although it shows nothing out of the ordinary. Some may leave disgusted, but only those whose minds, dazzled by commercialism and the rush for “lightness of being,” do not understand that everything that happens does not happen without impacting our lives. Aesthetic problems are outside the sphere of action. They do not concern the artist.

Maybe we’ll end up taking a bath in the same bathtub where hundreds of litres of DNA went down the drain, causing unimaginable pain to the victims. Let’s do this if, after the exhibition, we are not invited to dialogue with the artist.

Katarzyna Wójcik 

Wojtek Ulrich (b. 1963) studied at the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław and at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf. In the early 1990s he moved to the USA. His multimedia installations with large metal sculptures, photography and video have been shown in galleries in Europe, Toronto, Chicago and New York. His dual education and long time spent living on another continent have influenced his artistic technique and perception of reality. He uses the latest technologies in his practice, also to create films and installations.

Further information: https://66p.pl/en/mechaniczna-szarancza-wojtek-ulrich