Seller's presentation : Artur Zarczynski

I was born in Wroclaw, Poland in 1981, at the beginning of the last decade of the perishing system, just one month before the introduction of the martial law. I remember those earnest, anxious faces of generals gaping from the tv screen. They were insane somnambulists striving to fulfil their decadent dreams. However, that small, weird world evolved. Communism collapsed before I was ten so now I can live and create wherever I want. I chose London, the city full of energy, majesty, tradition, contrasts, passion and hatred, to be the beginning of my journey.

In my work I focus mainly on the human, in particular the European. I am interested in the current human condition, past achievements and probable future. I am wondering about the aim of the old continent, of that cradle of the contemporary, modern civilisation. Where are the humans that inhabit it going, what are the motives for their deeds and what are the values they cherish? Is it possible to speak about the phenomenon of the European culture in today’s mass world? Are the Roman law, Christian morality and Greek philosophy still values for my contemporaries? Are all those achievements perishing, being washed away and replaced by something that can be called an anti-value and culturlessness? What is today's man relation to God and natural law? Those questions are the starting point for my work. In art, and in particular in sculpture, I am looking for means to answer them.

I make my sculptures of clay, sometimes glaze them, sometimes paint them or leave them as biscuit, depending on the result I want to achieve. I have chosen clay because it is convenient as a material to be worked on and it can be shaped in various ways. It is a wonderful material for conveying almost any idea. I use numerous additives such as plaster, cement and metal, too.