The animations from which the video works were created, as well as the words appearing in the artist’s notebooks, were written in a certain rush. It may suggest the need not to forget the content, which often unexpectedly reveals itself to the artist. In her work, Anastasia Kashtalian uses the surrounding sexual energy, to which she attaches importance and closely looks at it every day. Anastasia creates video works in which she often stands in front of the camera.

Exhibition opening: 21/10/2022 (Friday), at 6:00 p.m.
Where: Galeria Labirynt | Plaza, ul. Lipowa 13, Lublin (entrance from ul. Ofiar Katynia)
Accessibility: The exhibition is held on the ground floor in a space free from architectural barriers.
On display: until 04/12/2022 (Tue–Sat, 1:00–6:00 p.m.; Sun 12:00–7:00 p.m.)
Admission: free

Curator: Filip Kijowski

The exhibition may contain explicit content.

“Entries in notebooks titled ‘That’s What She/He Said’ are created spontaneously. I write in them words that people say without sexual overtones, but I hear those sexual overtones. In the notebooks ‘Quarantine Notes’ I write down private erotic fantasies, experiences, and dreams. The process of creating video works begins when, thinking about a topic, excitement causes the threads to thicken and become intense. When I can’t stop impulses, I make videos, write and draw, catching pictures and words before they leave the imagination,” says Anastasia.

An important element of her aesthetics are sexual overtones and nature – resulting from her natural interest in eroticism and everything related to it. In addition, Anastasia’s videos intertwine elements of surrealism and sense of humour. In the process of creation, the artist listens to spontaneous sexual energy in close surroundings. Her records become a form of memorising this energy.

Anastasia Kashtalian was born in 1998 in Lutsk, Ukraine. In the years 2008–2014, she attended the Lutsk School of Art, and in the years 2014–2018 I.F. Stravinsky Volyn Vocational College of Culture and Arts. Since 2019 she has been studying artistic education at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin. So far, she has had two individual exhibitions: “Quarantine Notes” in 2020 at the VONSHU Gallery in Lutsk and “Natural/Postnatural” in 2021 at the Galeria KONT in Lublin.

The “Psychoempath” exhibition addresses the problem of violence and related trauma. In her works, Ewelina “Ewe” Kruszewska deconstructs words related to the relationships of people living in destructive relationships. “Psychoempath” is a neologism created by the artist to describe the state of compassion, which situates itself in opposition to the word psychopath, constituting a term for the person with too strong feelings. Paradoxically, it is a feeling that is often given to a person who is a source of violence.

Exhibition opening: 07/10/2022 (Friday), at 7:00 p.m.
Where: Galeria Labirynt, ul. ks. J. Popiełuszki 5, Lublin
On display: until 23/10/2022 (Tue–Sun, 12:00–7:00 p.m.)
Admission: PLN 1 (free admission to the exhibition opening)

Music: Kacper Kruszewski
Curator: Aleksandra Skrabek

The exhibition consists of simple, black and white motion posters. The choice of artistic medium emphasises the dichotomy between transmission and form. As a rule, motion posters are used in design, advertising as well as in media. They are intended for a wide range of recipients, they often speak directly, sometimes even insistently, but usually in a positive way. Here, the form was used to present a not always obvious, often veiled message. Under the guise of irony, the artist reveals content evoking difficult experiences, just as trauma victims are often unable to speak literally about what they have experienced. The animations, together with the music composed by Kacper Kruszewski, create a visual and sound installation in which the words were subjected to artistic treatments aimed at experiencing their dramatic sense, for example “BAJERA” – a spinning disco ball, a luminous form used to delude another person, or “DELUSIONS” – difficult to grasp, emerging from a vague space and disappearing word, reflecting the state of existence in a situation that turns out to be an illusion.