2017, mixed media (intervention into a found object: paper arrows on a large school map of Europe). Project created for the solo exhibition "Journey as a State of Mind" at the Gallery BWA, Bydgoszcz, PL (02-04.2017)
It is often assumed that the shortest way is the best. Our globe is entwined with a network of shortest routes, set in place by the smooth asphalt of motorways, fuel consumption efficiency limitations, lines of air travel destination networks, commercial trading routes, politically and economically regulated trans-border migration traffic.
I sometimes wonder: what is the route that fish in the oceans and seas take? Or drops of water, or grains of sand? What do they encounter on their enigmatic non-human ways? And is one way of traveling better than another?
Our species, is becoming more and more entangled in a web of constant shortcuts, technological conveniences and ever increasing efficiency. Urban human beings lead lives increasingly in tune with the operating rhythms of machines, the closed circuits of computer networks, and the algorithm loops that govern them. The changing characteristics of the natural environment - its shifting seasons, its fluctuating climate, the life of plants and animals, disappear into the blurry, distant background of existential concerns.
What could we learn about the surrounding world, if we took an unexpected journey, far off the well trodden paths, by following the global flows of water (even if only in our thoughts)? This journey would be very different from the most obvious "straight line”. What various beings, people and worlds would we encounter on this meandering voyage?
Is the shortest way to reach our aim always the best one? Does it really pay off to do what is the quickest? What are the implications of always choosing the shortcut and the most short-term beneficial path?
I invite the viewer to a mental journey, with this special map, from Munich, where I currently live, to Bydgoszcz, where my exhibition opens tonight.