Andrej Polukord. Unknown Mushrooms
The values of the Anthropocene Epoch pierce into the human conscience and point a finger at the still-living brute instinct. The long-flourishing subjugation of natural resources for excessive consumption, human dominance over living nature and control of the latter are being replaced today by new narratives about human responsibility and the planet’s future. The exhibition Unknown Mushrooms by the interdisciplinary art creator Andrej Polukord, who represents the young generation, invites to immerse oneself in a dystopian tale full of paradoxes and jests, which takes the spectator to a forest where mushrooms grow.
Mushrooms have a distinct status in the folklore and mythology of various countries. They are associated with the forest spirits and fertility. Mushrooms are also linked to the chthonic mythical being – the devil – and the spheres of death and money attributed to it. Often, mushrooms are depicted as living, even human beings, appearing only to the chosen ones who are blessed with mushroom luck or success.
The mushroom kingdom, however, is full of unusual, unknown mushroom species. In this exhibition, Andrej Polukord, the interdisciplinary art creator of the young generation, who is also a successful mushroom picker and mushroom collector, introduces new, invasive mushroom species that we ourselves have grown industrially and planted in the forest.
Andrej Polukord (b. 1990) lives in Vilnius and Vienna. In 2011–2015 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna; in 2016 he was awarded the Kunsthalle Wien Prize. In 2014 A. Polukord founded Galerie Uberall, one of the first private mobile galleries. Galerie Uberall has toured and exhibited internationally, including Vienna Contemporary (2015), documenta (2017) in Athens, and Hoftallungen | mumok in Vienna.
Polukord’s installations, performances, and video art projects seem comical and absurd at first glance, but their purpose is to break the established thought patterns, to show the paradoxes hidden within. He turns his hobbies, such as baking bread or harvesting mushrooms, into artistic projects. Andrej’s work plays the card of frivolity and naivety with devilish accuracy and precision, first by knocking the spectator out of their tracks and forcing a smile, and finally by forcing one to think.
Exhibition Curator Jolanta Marcišauskytė-Jurašienė
Architect Ūla Žebrauskaitė-Malinauskė
Designer Laura Grigaliūnaitė
Lighting Designer Milvydas Kezys
Coordinator Ernestas Parulskis
Coordinating Architect Mindaugas Reklaitis
Exhibition Partner Galerie Uberall
Sponsors: Borealis, VšI „Humana People to People Baltic“, Medžio stilius
Media Partners: Artnews
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