Glam Gargoyle – Crawling on Cloud Nine

This exhibition is about the experience of a refugee life. When the full-scale russian* invasion of Ukraine began, the artist left her home. Since then she has changed her bed twenty-one times. Based on her own experience, she noticed that her life began to divide into eras, which are separated by the changes of places she sleeps in. Each new journey is a turbulent path to a short-term place of peace. A comfortable, warm, and safe spot may seem like a mirage for a while. The bed becomes a material representation of an utopian place.

Exhibition opening:
When: 27/06/2023 (Tuesday) at 7:00 p.m.
Where: Galeria Labirynt 2, ul. Grodzka 3, Lublin
Accessibility: The exhibition is held in a space not accessible for people with motor impairments.
No English interpretation.
Exhibition on display: until 23/07/2023 (Tuesday–Sunday, 3:00–7:00 p.m.)
Admission: free

During one of our first conversations with Glam, we spoke about the role social media played after February 24, 2022, in the efforts to support Ukrainian people seeking asylum. Everyday civilians were behind the profiles offering “a roof over your head” or a “bed to sleep on”. We paid close attention to the language used by those offering this kind of support. Being Ukrainian became a “token” that could be exchanged for a place to sleep. We described this as a type of transaction and asked ourselves if referring to a person as a “bed”, or offering support by only stating the number of beds you have available dehumanise a person.

* The word “russian” is deliberately written in lower case, expressing the political decision of the authors of the text.

Glam Gargoyle / Maria Strelchuk – a multidisciplinary artist and fem-queer person from the city of Berdyansk in Ukraine. She works with themes of utopia to subjugate the everyday. She draws inspiration mainly from young radicals, social activists and those involved in rave culture.