Sammlung Goetz

Noël sur le balcon/HOLD THE COLOR. Paulina Olowska/Lucy McKenzie

March 25 – August 3, 2007

“In the Goetz Collection we present work from a variety of projects produced both separately and as a two-person team. It has been an ideal opportunity to experience several things.“ (Lucy McKenzie and Paulina Olowska)

This exhibition of works by Polish artist Paulina Olowska and Scottish artist Lucy McKenzie was a first for the Sammlung Goetz in that the entire building, including the lower-level BASE 103, was made available for the artists to curate their own exhibition. The paintings, drawings, collages, installations and a video were completed by new, site-specific installations referencing the spatial characteristics of the museum.
The artists aimed to create a dialogue between their respective works or to resituate them within the context of the Sammlung Goetz. Having first met through an academic exchange programme in 1998, the two artists have much in common. Both come from port cities (Glasgow and Gdańsk, respectively), that they personally perceive as geographically and artistically off the beaten track. Both continue to identify with these cities, in spite of their international careers, and acknowledge the important formative influence they have had on their art. In terms of content, the artists share an interest in the quest for alternative approaches to painting and projects in the public space.
Their site-specific works seek to formulate references to everyday aesthetics and singularly local features. They also address issues surrounding the appropriation and significance of aesthetic visual worlds. Using historical references to developments in twentieth-century Polish art or to the Arts and Crafts movement in the British isles, they deliberately question the possibilities of social engagement by artists. Both artists find motifs and inspiration in the world of fashion, applied arts, street signs and found wall paintings in their respective homelands.