Zuzanna Czebatul at Kunstpalais Erlangen

Artist: Zuzanna Czebatul

Exhibition title: The Happy Deppy Ecstasy Institute

Curated by: Malte Lin-Kröger

Venue: Kunstpalais Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany

Date: June 19 – November 11, 2021

Photography: © Ludger Paffrath / all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Kunstpalais Erlangen

In The Happy Deppy Ecstasy Institute, Zuzanna Czebatul (born 1986 in Międzyrzecz, Poland) poses questions about power, its symbolic embodiment, and how power relations structure our social reality. For Kunstpalais Erlangen, the Berlin-based sculptor not only produces new sculptures, but also creates an extensive artistic spatial program that can be read as a parody of real-life end-time spectacles. Mighty gas pipelines, man-sized towers made of body armor, or a pirated copy of a part of the Louvre facade reflect Czebatul’s fascination with geopolitical themes and monolithic forms. In her exhibition the overlapping discourses on claims to power and claims of interpretations resemble a signature of our time.

For all their aesthetic force, Czebatul’s works are primarily concerned with aspects of our mode of production and life that are readily repressed. Against the horizon of current political, economic, and ecological crises, she draws on the strategies of a polyphonic, emancipatory counterculture, without succumbing to the temptation of moral finality. In times when the statues of colonizers are being razed and imperial castles are being reconstructed at the same time, her works represent witty anti-monuments – memorials to an ideology-free society yet to be built.

Zuzanna Czebatul, From left to right: Probably a Robbery, 2021, polystyrene, acrylic plaster, pigments, wood, metal, 315 x 195 x 88 cm; Time Cloud I – V, 2021, oil on canvas, each 200 x 150 cm; Godspeed (Start) & Godspeed (Stop), 2021, polystyrene, synthetic resin varnish, polyvinyl chloride, metal, dimensions variable

Zuzanna Czebatul, From left to right: Time Cloud I – V, 2021, oil on canvas, each 200 x 150 cm; Godspeed (Start) & Godspeed (Stop), 2021, polystyrene, synthetic resin varnish, polyvinyl chloride, metal, dimensions variable

Zuzanna Czebatul, Time Cloud III, 2021, oil on canvas, 200 x 150 cm

Zuzanna Czebatul, Probably a Robbery, 2021, polystyrene, acrylic plaster, pigments, wood, metal, 315 x 195 x 88 cm

Zuzanna Czebatul, Godspeed (Start) & Godspeed (Stop), 2021, polystyrene, synthetic resin varnish, polyvinyl chloride, metal, dimensions variable

Zuzanna Czebatul, Godspeed (Start) & Godspeed (Stop), detail, 2021, polystyrene, synthetic resin varnish, polyvinyl chloride, metal, dimensions variable

Zuzanna Czebatul, From left to right: Economic Ejaculation, 2021, found footage video, sound, 75 min.; Jack the Future, 2021, polystyrene, acrylic plaster, varnish, 100 x 55 x 53 cm

Zuzanna Czebatul, Economic Ejaculation, 2021, found footage video, sound, 75 min

Zuzanna Czebatul, Jack the Future, 2021, polystyrene, acrylic plaster, varnish, 100 x 55 x 53 cm

Zuzanna Czebatul, Jack the Future, 2021, polystyrene, acrylic plaster, varnish, 100 x 55 x 53 cm; Columns of Empire I – IV, 2021, mixed media, 180 x 60 x 60 cm

Zuzanna Czebatul, Columns of Empire I – IV, 2021, mixed media, 180 x 60 x 60 cm

Zuzanna Czebatul, Columns of Empire I – IV, detail, 2021, mixed media, 180 x 60 x 60 cm

Zuzanna Czebatul, From left to right: Columns of Empire I – IV, detail, 2021, mixed media, 180 x 60 x 60 cm; Energy Circlusion, 2021, metal, wood, plaster, varnish, 600 x 400 x 143 cm