Twelfth Fisheye Biennale. You’ll Be Surprised

Do you remember the last time you were surprised? Or what it was that surprised you? Yes? No? Perhaps you don’t know?

There is one thing we want to come clean about when using the phrase You’ll Be Surprised toopen the exhibition – we cannot stop being surprised. It is difficult to focus attention on something astonishing especially now that we are constantly being surprised. Strolling along the street, looking at the information displayed on screens, reading what happened the day before. The world that we are part of grows increasingly incomprehensible in its complexity, and it is harder and harder to avoid confusion.

An attempt to grasp the contemporary world is not facilitated by the conclusion that surprise is not homogenous – it can provoke various, at times contradictory, reactions. It can make you take a step forward or a step back, to repress or – rarely – to take direct action. Therefore, an intervention is called for. A transformation of that strange experience into something else.

This year’s Biennale is a platform of surprise – thus providing a definition for the artworks included in the show. Surprise can provide a departure point, constitute a creative method or the final effect. As a source that gives rise to the work it can result from a state bordering on fascination – a phenomenon, material, occurrence, working conditions. When a method, it is a way of giving the right representation to reality.

The themes explored by the artworks should also be taken into consideration. We wish to redirect the stress in manifestations which indicates that precedence has of late been given to art that almost exclusively relies on aesthetic values. It is centred not only around art-related values but evolves from them to create conditions favourable for pondering on what matters here and now. This simple distinction makes it possible to follow what happens next – why we focus on the exploration of everyday aesthetics and what the conditions this takes place in are. It is for this reason that we refer to the practices presented at the exhibition as engaged.

The artists participating in the Twelfth Fisheye Biennale investigate how social norms and ways of organising reality settle in what is most private. In the works of Oliwer Okręglicki – Silesian Peasant, Broad-Shouldered, Narrow-Arsed and I Devour Mum Out Of Love,as well as in those by Sonia Góral, personal stories become sites for negotiating what we consider the right image of identity, family and one’s own past. Okręglicki examines the boundaries of Silesian identity and the cracks in it, while Góral challenges the idea that a family archive constitutes a straightforward record of shared experience. In The Things I Wrote You, Agata Klepka looks for a language to describe the experience of care that would contain both closeness and autonomy.

Control over bodies, biographies and relationships becomes even more apparent when applied in the realms of security and care. In his installation Hyperrealistic Mother, Alexander Adamau organises the area of care in a way that makes it impossible to separate the façade of protection from surveillance. Natalia Kaftan, in her Halo Vest, and Alicja Paszkiel in Lecture with an Arse in a Bowl scrutinise cases when medical care subjects the body to specific diagnostic and corrective procedures. Diverse strategies implemented in these works enquire how much autonomy are we willing to surrender to gain a sense of safety, stability or belonging? And what happens when tools designed to aid us come to dictate the terms of our existence?

Also addressed at the Biennale are subjects that resonate with the artists’ experiences of complex identities and biographical aspects resulting from social engagement confronted with disciplinary and regulatory mechanisms. Drawing on family history, Zuzanna Romańska’s The Corncockle War processes interwoven historical narratives regarding Polish-Ukrainian relations within a universe she has developed. In her Tatreez series, Maja Padusińska sews a piece of traditional Palestinian embroidery into fabric and Plexiglas to cast light on the historical and contemporary contexts of Palestine’s destruction. With their cinematic depiction of the Polish-Belarusian border in Without Crossing Bounddaries, Zofia Białecka and Weronika Ziółkowska remind us of the humanitarian crisis still going on in the borderlands. They address uncomfortable questions to disturb our comfortable indifference.

Personal is also the effort we put into daily work which appears at the show not merely as a subject but a mechanism that structures time, body, attention and relationships. Danylo Shulha demonstrates in his performance review ruined my day how the language of corporate procedures and constant evaluation permeates one’s emotions and sense of self-worth, and how the experience of migration merges with a system in which one’s skills, personal history and communication style are subject to continuous verification and regulation by an external party – be it a boss, an office or a government. In Ľudmila Bubánová’s Such an exquisite, delightful toil, work affects the body directly as the historic effort of lace-makers brings pain, physical deformities and material traces of production. In Maria Tołwińska’s Clock It!!!, time accelerates and loops, no longer a neutral backdrop to everyday life. In these works, hours, deadlines, expectations and the pressure to keep up become part of the experience of living within a system that relentlessly demands unachievable productivity.

This logic is also true in the realm of art. Institutions are not transparent spaces in which artworks are simply displayed but play a part in the production of visibility, values and hierarchies. Justyna Kramarz’s Everything will be fine presents the qualities of bravery, focus and self-confidence as survival strategies against the pressure of time and overload. Klaudia Figura’s Untitled revisits the artist’s unfinished objects, revealing an overproduction of them in an attempt to cope with the pressure of having to create an artwork that would make her visible within the institutional art world and, consequently, open up new opportunities. In The Perfect Welcomer, Barbara Stańko-Jurczyńska suggests that taking a different direction is possible; instead of professionalisation, individual success and competition, she opts for co-authorship, kindness and working together. Both strategies reveal the tension between art as a competitive discipline and the possibility of adopting different principles in its organisation.

This tension could not be avoided in the Fisheye Biennale, either. This year’s competition attempts to give agency to the participating artists and emerging curators without confining them to exhibition space. A jury selected the curatorial team which, together with the commissioners, chose the participants, and now it is the participants who are to select the winner. Within three days, the artists will have to collectively lay down the categories and criteria to be used for this selection. We are interested in the following question: is it possible, while working within and with an institution, to make hierarchies horizontal and to negotiate them? Can equality be maintained when decisions are taken under the pressures of institutional workflow with its deadlines, limited resources and the need to select a winner? Allowing the artists to award the main prize does not eliminate competition, it rather shifts the focus to the question as to who has the right to assign value, according to what criteria. This may be precisely where we are in for a surprise: when mechanisms we tend to take for granted, including work, evaluation, rivalry, success or failure, temporarily stop being evident.

We hope that, when paying attention to what the artists explore, you’ll be as surprised as we are. You’ll be surprised to see how much has changed. You’ll be surprised to see how often we have to, once again, revisit same old problems because nothing new on the horizon.

BRO – Opening Programme

1 Oct, Thu

6:00 PM – Opening of the 12th Rybie Oko Biennale – BGSW / Ustka Performance by Alicja Paszkiel, Lecture with Your Butt in a Bowl 7:00 PM – BRO Variety Show – “Radość” Café, 10 Limanowskiego St., Ustka A performance evening featuring the Biennale finalists

2 Oct, Fri

Artist- and curator-led exhibition tours: 12:00 PM – A Caring Gaze – BGSW / Podgrodzie 1:30 PM – In Suspension – BGSW / Baszta 5:00 PM – Changing Position – BGSW / Ustka 6:00 PM – Rybka’s Eye – BGSW / Ustka A house party with Ignacy Rybka

3 Oct, Sat

12:00 PM – Still Think You’ve Seen It All? – Słupsk Town Hall, 3 Zwycięstwa Square, Council Chamber Panel discussion featuring the artists, curatorial team and jury Public voting and jury deliberations 3:00 PM – Guided Tour for Seniors as part of the Weekend with Culture for Seniors – BGSW / Baszta & Podgrodzie 5:00 PM – Seen Through a Fish Eye – Photography Workshop for Seniors as part of the Weekend with Culture for Seniors – BGSW / Ustka 7:00 PM – Biennale in Venice – “Wenecja” Restaurant / Hotel Morze, 22 Marynarki Polskiej St., Ustka, entrance from Bulwar Portowy Awards ceremony and afterparty with Radio Ingrid DJ set: DJ Oksi Doksi and Jonee Dee

BRO – Accompanying Programme

20 Oct, Tue / 5:00 PM – Guided Tour led by Tomek Pawłowski Jarmołajew BGSW / Baszta & Podgrodzie

12 Nov, Thu / 5:00 PM – Guided Tour led by Tomek Pawłowski Jarmołajew BGSW / Ustka

14.11 sáb. / 17:00 – recorrido guiado por la exposición en español BGSW / Baszta & Podgrodzie

26 Nov, Thu / 5:00 PM – Guided Tour led by Tomek Pawłowski Jarmołajew BGSW / Ustka

28 Nov, Sat / 12:00 PM – Behind the Scenes of Rybie Oko – BGSW / Baszta & Podgrodzie

A tour of the exhibition from a production perspective, featuring the curatorial team and producer Magda Karpiniec

29 Nov, Sun / 4:00 PM – St Andrew’s Eve with Rybie Oko – BGSW / Ustka

Closing event of the 12th Rybie Oko Young Art Biennale: a curator-led tour and fortune-telling

Led by: Kot, Liso Stec, Łucja Staszkiewicz

Winners of the 12th Fish Eye Biennial “You’ll Be Surprised”

The BRO 12 Grand Prix was awarded to Agata Klepka. The winner was selected through a secret ballot among the competition participants.

The other two awards were granted by an international jury consisting of Vera Zalutskaya, Joanna Warsza, Jasmina Metwaly, Alexander Koch and Agnieszka Kilian.

The Marshal of the Pomeranian Voivodeship Award was awarded to Alexander Adamau.

The Mayor of Słupsk Award was awarded to Weronika Ziółkowska and Zofia Białkowska.

Additional distinctions were also awarded.

Distinctions in the form of regenerative residencies in 2027, awarded by the BGSW team, went to Ľudmila Bubánová, Natalia Kaftan, Oliwer Okręglicki, Alicja Paszkiel and Barbara Stańko-Jurczyńska.

The International Jury Distinction was awarded to Maja Padusińska.

Honorary Patronage

Marshal of the Pomorskie Voivodeship Mieczysław Struk Mayor of Słupsk Krystyna Danilecka-Wojewódzka Mayor of Ustka Jacek Maniszewski

Media Patronage

NN6T, Miej Miejsce, Restart, SZUM

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Rybie Oko