Bodies of Earth. Our Bodies

Can matter act? Do the growth of a plant, the circulation of water, the cracking of wood or the slow decay of organic tissue merely take place in the background of human history, or might they constitute a form of agency that we have long failed to notice? From 25 September, NOMUS – Nowe Muzeum Sztuki presents an exhibition devoted to historical and contemporary ways of depicting nature and to the changing relations between the human and the non-human. It is the first exhibition in the cycle Every Past Art Was Once Contemporary, which juxtaposes works from different eras to show the continuity of sensibility and the transformation of how we look at reality.

Nature as a Network of Interdependence

– We are interested in nature not as a still image or a backdrop for human activity, but as matter that works incessantly: it grows, circulates, soaks, decays and regenerates. In many of the works on display, these processes are not merely the subject of the representation but actually co-create the work. This allows us to look at agency differently – to notice that changes in the world are not solely the result of human decisions and actions – says Aleksandra Grzonkowska, curator of the exhibition. The exhibition asks what changes when nature ceases to be treated as a subject, a backdrop or a resource. The works on display allow us to see it as matter with its own dynamics: growing, soaking, circulating, undergoing transformation and affecting human bodies, gestures and ways of knowing. Instead of one story about nature, the exhibition offers several parallel perspectives: scientific, aesthetic, bodily, ecological and material.

Every Past Art Was Once Contemporary

– Placing historical botanical prints alongside contemporary art allows us to see both the continuity and the transformation of ways of thinking about nature. Past depictions grew out of attentive observation and wonder at the complexity of life forms. Contemporary works develop this sensitivity, but also direct attention to processes, coexistence and material dependencies. It is therefore not a simple opposition between old and new ways of seeing, but a matter of showing how the questions we ask nature change – adds Maja Murawska, curator of the exhibition.

The exhibition features works by Agnieszka Brzeżańska, Bogna Burska, Honorata Martin, Teresa Murak, Alicja Patanowska, Agnieszka Polska, Łukasz Rusznica, Zofia Sobolewska Ursic, Teresa Tyszkiewicz, Rafał Wilk, Liliana Zeic and Jakub Julian Ziółkowski, juxtaposed among others with canonical historical botanical works such as Flora Prussica by Johannes Loeselius, Kreutterbuch by Pietro Andrea Mattioli, and the Zielnik by Szymon Syreński from the collections of the PAN Library in Gdańsk, as well as eighteenth-century works by Barbara Regina Dietzsch and Johann Friedrich Schulze from the collections of the Print and Drawing Studio of the Department of Old Art at the National Museum in Gdańsk.

The presented works also come from the art collections of PKO Bank Polski, the Fundacja Sztuki Polskiej ING, Galeria Consonni Radziszewski, Zachęta – Narodowa Galeria Sztuki, the Gdańska Kolekcja Sztuki Współczesnej on deposit at NOMUS – Nowe Muzeum Sztuki, and artists invited to take part in the exhibition.