Barbara Żłobińska and Mariusz Maślanka at Obrońców Stalingradu 17

Artists: Barbara Żłobińska and Mariusz Maślanka

Exhibition title: Bad Trip

Venue: Obrońców Stalingradu 17, Szczecin, Poland

Date: September 19 – October 1, 2018

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Obrońców Stalingradu 17

“Bad Trip” exhibition combines a series of references to the assemblage of forces creating the reality we observe. Barbara Żłobińska and Mariusz Maślanka examine culture, ecology, economy, technology and untamed primitiveness to build a post-anthropocentric narration about fears and hopes associated with the future.

The effects of irresponsible use of natural resources by man and the dizzying expansion of his activity, which was supposed to have a positive impact on the life on earth, can be compared to the state of psychosis: genetic mutations, weather anomalies, ecological disasters…

The artists realised their objects by moving the themes known from everyday life into completely different dimensions. Digital elements frozen in the world of permanent materiality, shapes of factory products covered with the organic structures, symbols formed fitting to the nature of the present. Aesthetics and philosophical concepts intertwine here with daily routine creating unreal compositions that are intriguing but also disturbing.

Following the tittle term taken from the psychedelic culture, we see the world as a huge spectrum of living forms, emerging animal and organic figures, an animate and inanimate environment watching us with admiration and anxiety.