MOLOCH View of the exhibition

Curatorial text

Piotr Kolanko “Moloch”

The yard sale is over. Yard sales are reputed to be an event that integrates neighbors, thanks to which unnecessary items gain a new life. The antipodes of garage sales in the field of trade are fairs. Piotr Kolanko has just returned from one of them.

Piotr Kolanko’s activities seem incompatible with each other. He can be a visual artist, a contractor for corporate orders and a participant in night bombing. In the first quarter of 2024, Piotr Kolanko is implementing an exhibition triptych in Krakow – a totem pole with many faces. “Objects in mirror are closer than they appear” at Galeria Olympia is an extension of “All my hairy thoughts”, curated by Weronika Plińska at Galeria Podbrzezie.

The space of the Olympia Gallery becomes a trade fair stand located in a toilet cover in graffiti. For the needs of the exhibition, the “Moloch” brand is established; although its existence is temporary, it is equipped with all the necessary attributes of a new brand – from the logo to a trade fair stand with a counter, a lightbox banner and a cocktail table for conversations with customers. The ephemerality of the “Moloch” brand is no different from the transience of stands at real fairs. Taking part in these several-day-long trade events, the artist observed the tons of waste they generated. He came up with the idea of reusing them creatively by reversing the demolition process. “Moloch” materializes from the ashes of consumption festivals.

“Moloch” only pretends to greatness; it is in fact a shell that will fall apart at any moment, but is it for sure?. Piotr Kolanko’s installation is on all the things that we do not want to take and throw away immediately after use. The “Moloch” brand sets up a stand in a toilet – a place where we leave our waste and do not take anything from it.

“Objects in mirror are closer than they appear” may be considered a slogan whose high frequency of occurrence has taken away the original meaning of the warning. The phrase loses its usefulness, slowly becoming a synonym for travel. “Moloch” clearly reminds that “Objects in mirror are closer than they appear” is also a disturbing prediction of an approaching danger and accident.

Robert Domżalski

“Structure of reality” Process

April 18, 2024 No Comments

“Structure of Reality” is more a process than a finished work, resulting from the premonitions and intuitions I gathered while creating material on this subject. It’s a separate project I revisit several times a year, observing what changes within it, how it interacts with me, whether new contents emerge, or contexts are built upon. Writing an article about this process has rekindled my interest and provides another occasion to peer into the lion’s maw. Works in this field merge my interests in matter and rock with purely painterly issues such as color and trace. Naturally, as always in the process of creation, an entire symbolic layer emerges, encompassing experiences of war, change, libido, and sexuality. Change The initial brutality of the gesture is filled with sensitivity. In creating this cycle, I operate in a highly intuitive manner that allows me to simultaneously capture both violent and subtle phenomena. I remain interested in movement, penetration, and transformation. The relationships between macro and micro realities, various waves, influences, and currents that in their relentless pursuit of their own goals and interests forge areas unique to themselves. The moment when one entity becomes another fascinates me. Harmony? Scope As a living being, man

Black and white

April 5, 2024 No Comments

text Piotr Kolanko Black and white

MOLOCH View of the exhibition

April 5, 2024 No Comments

Curatorial text Piotr Kolanko “Moloch” The yard sale is over. Yard sales are reputed to be an event that integrates neighbors, thanks to which unnecessary items gain a new life. The antipodes of garage sales in the field of trade are fairs. Piotr Kolanko has just returned from one of them. Piotr Kolanko’s activities seem incompatible with each other. He can be a visual artist, a contractor for corporate orders and a participant in night bombing. In the first quarter of 2024, Piotr Kolanko is implementing an exhibition triptych in Krakow – a totem pole with many faces. “Objects in mirror are closer than they appear” at Galeria Olympia is an extension of “All my hairy thoughts”, curated by Weronika Plińska at Galeria Podbrzezie. The space of the Olympia Gallery becomes a trade fair stand located in a toilet cover in graffiti. For the needs of the exhibition, the “Moloch” brand is established; although its existence is temporary, it is equipped with all the necessary attributes of a new brand – from the logo to a trade fair stand with a counter, a lightbox banner and a cocktail table for conversations with customers. The ephemerality of the “Moloch” brand is

“All my hairy thoughts” view of the exhibition

April 5, 2024 No Comments

Piotr Kolanko explores the phenomenon of the painterly trace, perceiving it as a kind of sign that does not have to be a readable symbol. Unlike the creators at the beginning of the 20th century, Kolanko does not appropriate the heritage of distant non-European cultures. His field of archaeological search is different, a specific archive – it is an attempt to capture states of his own unconsciousness, to which the only possible insight is given by dream analysis, experimentation, or introspection. Already biographically experienced with the inevitability of death, the artist nurtures élan vital, collecting transgressive events and experiences.

MOLOCH View of the exhibition

Curatorial text

“Structure of reality” Process

Black and white

MOLOCH View of the exhibition

“All my hairy thoughts” view of the exhibition

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