04 Oct – 03 Nov 2013

Bastards & Orphans
Institute of Design Kielce, Poland

Summary of a few days of 2012 and 2013 spent casting from moulds hollowed by water dripping from the ceilings of the abandoned Porcelain Factory, “Książ” (†2004) in Walbrzych, Manufacture Royal Boch (†2009) in La Louviere in Belgium and Spode factory (†2008) in Stoke-on-Trent in Great Britain.

The essence of the project is examining what is left in both the material and intellectual sense, on these sites; observing the processes taking place there and asking about the place of art, design, intellectual property in the life of contemporary society; their value, their meaning and their future. The objects themselves are not the main focus of the project. They are used as a medium that carries a record of the entire history of the factory in all its stages.

Patuszyńska understands that a factory becomes brain dead the moment the last staff member leaves the building and padlocks the door. But other vital organs survive through transference. The contents of that space immediately begin an incremental process of rebirth via natural mutation. The heart continues to beat and lungs still gasp for air. Oxidation becomes the primary life giver. Mold adds growing patches of green and brown, metals rust, wood splinters and rots, leaking roofs spread water that in turn serves decay. Rats move in, insects thrive. As plaster molds erode, they curiously begin to resemble ancient bones. All of this is evidence that a new, vigorous cycle of life has begun. And given enough time, everything manmade will be either gone or unrecognizable. Garth Clark, Editor CFile
cfileonline.org/exhibition-monika-patuszynska-orphans-bastards