Wire-less

ul. Skałeczna 5, Kraków – 29.06.2016 – 6.08.2016


The communication tools of the 21st century are, paradoxically, the cause of our social isolation. The Internet has meant that spontaneous contact between people is becoming increasingly difficult. Our private image,identity and social position are dependent on technology in today's world. Social networking portals force users to fit Web standards in terms of appearance or language.

Piotr Micek's installation "Masks" symbolically draws attention to the communication problems of modern society. The artist has combined twenty geometric porcelain objects resembling human faces using an irregular wire braid. This "wire" network connects the various system components and creates, like the Internet, a kind of wireless communication technology, which actually hinders interpersonal contacts ("less"), rather than facilitate them.

The masks, although very similar, are not identical. To make them, Piotr Micek used the same mould, but during subsequent stages of the process – drying, firing, glazing – each slightly changed shape. "These small differences in the appearance of the masks symbolize the struggle to maintain individual characteristics in the modern world," emphasizes Micek in his description of the installation. In this way, it refers to the reality in which social networks see us only as points on a map of virtual connections.

Maja Prus

PIOTR MICEK
Graduated from the Faculty of Ceramics and Glass at the E. Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław, Poland, 2010. Immediately after graduation, along with other graduates of his department, he founded the studio glass and ceramics for one of Wroclaw's developers. In the years 2013–2015, together with Anna Wierdak he ran the design studio Studio Pack; Since 2016 he has been director of the Centre of Unique Ceramics in the Old Mine Science and Art Centre, Wałbrzych, Poland. He has participated in two group exhibitions.