Time is just a memory

»Time is just a memory« originated as a reaction to the work of polish artist Janina Węgrzynowska (1930–2010). In her artistic oeuvre she has examined the visualization of motion and time in her abstract paintings and Op Art objects since the 1960s, and later also in her experiments with structuralist animations and laser installations. Though based in Warsaw throughout her life, her artistic practice was largely unregarded in the writing of her city´s art history, as this happened with many female artists all around the globe.

The curator Paulina Olszewska rediscovered her work in the archives of Studio Galeria Warsaw and decided to dedicate an exhibition to her work, inviting contemporary artists to reinterpret Janina Wegrzynowska`s work through their own artistic practice.

»Time is just a memory« takes up on the multilayered Op Art objects of Janina Węgrzynowska  - wooden boxes with layered, transparent glass panels painted with abstract shapes, creating an oscillating effect of patterns in motion. In Dagmar Schürrer’s work this set up is transferred to computer generated animations. Glossy digital cubes filled with abstract 3D-shapes, animated in infinite loops of uniform motion. In other animation shots these ten different tableaus are taken over by colorful avatars, their skins resembling the 3D-shapes. The repetitive imagery is alternating with slow camera rides through a dark environment, in which the objects and avatars are arranged in a circle, seemingly frozen in the digital time and landscape.

2023, digital animation with sound and
Augmented Reality application,
05:06 min