“Near Dark 2” / exhibition / 100 years in Labirynt

Opening of the exhibition: 11.10.2024, 18.00; afterparty: Ciężki Brokat “HAY AGE” (for people who attend the vernissage, free admission to the event)
Where: Galeria Labirynt, ul. ks. J. Popiełuszki 5, Lublin
Language: opening in Polish. Translation into Polish Sign Language; interpreter: Ewelina Lachowska. No translation into Ukrainian and English.
Exhibition on view until: 1.12.2024 (Tues.–Sun 12.00-19.00)
Admission: PLN 8 normal ticket, PLN 4 discount ticket (free admission to the vernissage)

artists: Eliza Chojnacka, Klaudia Figura, Konrad Gubała, Czaro Malinkiewicz, Paweł Marcinek, Przemysław Piniak, Zuza Piekoszewska, Maria Pietras, Maryna Sakowska, Mikołaj Sobotka, Bartosz Zaskórski
curator: Przemek Sowiński /Łęctwo Gallery

Special Award of the ING Polish Art Foundation for Warsaw Gallery Weekend 2024

The exhibition inspired by the 1987 film Near Dark, directed by Kathryn Bigelow, is the second part, essentially an intuitive attempt to transfer the film’s narrative into the realm of art. Bigelow’s film, though underappreciated at the time, perfectly captured the atmosphere of the 1980s, where horror films dominated as metaphors for youth’s transformations and puberty. Marketed by producers as a vampire horror, it deviates significantly from what we usually expect. The director entirely abandons the gothic iconography typically associated with the genre in favor of a more modern outlook. The word “vampire” is never uttered in the film, and there are no scenes that would typically intend to scare the audience. The “vampires” in Bigelow’s film resemble a group of outsiders — punks, misfits — forced by their “condition” to live and function on the fringes of normative society. At night, they sustain themselves by killing random people, only to wither away by day in cheap motels with sun-blocked windows. Together, they form a peculiar family unit, perhaps one plunged into chaos, nihilistic, and disillusioned, but willing to do anything to survive. […]

You won’t see vampires at the exhibition either. As in the film, instead of relying on straightforward genre tropes, the exhibition focuses on the experience of artistic approaches interested in breaking conventions. Exploring alternative ways of expressing one’s personality, negotiating issues of identity, and the visibility that comes with it. The works are linked together by the concept of transgression and the willingness to experience radically new emotions, whether in terms of techniques used, experimentation with materials, or personal experiences. As a result, what we see takes on a separate, ambiguous visual representation that far exceeds the original assumptions. Underneath the distorted form, themes from the film remain palpable: growing up, belonging, attitudes toward the traditional family model, relationships with others, and defining one’s own identity.
(excerpt from the curatorial text)

An event as part of the project “Galeria Labirynt – from a gallery of paintings to a gallery for people”.
Co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage under the program of the National Centre for Culture: Culture-Interventions. Edition 2024

Funded by the European Union as part of the National Recovery Plan.

Honorary patronage of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage

Availability: Exhibition on the ground floor. The bookstore offers free rental of noise-canceling earmuffs and a wheelchair. Quiet hours at the exhibition apply on Wednesdays from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. The gallery has 6 portable induction loops.