Collection

A mere several hundred million years ago, Warsaw was overgrown by palm-like trees, much better than the one standing at Rondo de Gaulle’a (De Gaulle Roundabout): they were real. Our capital was closer to the equator; if not experiencing marine flooding, it was covered by forest inhabited by assorted creatures, including dinosaurs. In other words, the Polish capital was much better off before Poland appeared. Katarzyna Przezwańska’s mock-up offers a panoramic view of contemporary Warsaw two hundred million years ago. Subtropical climate reigns in our latitudes. Sandy wetlands are rich in coniferous trees, tree ferns, sago, gingko, Benettitales, horsetails and polypodia. A small Compsognathus is strolling among the plants, dragonflies darting overhead; the sand shows traces of other animals’ footsteps.

Creator of sculptures, objects, installations and architectonic interventions; painter. A painting graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, she references modernism in her work, in a way never before seen in Polish art. Her works allude to the modernist heroic period, still a time of optimism, hope, and bright colours, to a modernism of human-oriented architecture adapted to meet individual user’s needs. Przezwańska’s interventions, multi-coloured spatial projects and objects are an attempt at recovering and adapting selected ideas from the past for purposes of the present. Her work of recent years has been inspired by nature and earth sciences. Winner of the ING Polish Art Foundation Award in 2018 during Warsaw Gallery Weekend. She lives and works in Warsaw.