The Polish Pavilion at the 55th International Art Exhibition — la Biennale di Venezia Venice
1 June–24 November 2013

Konrad Smoleński
Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More

Polish Pavilion Commissioner: Hanna Wróblewska
Exhibition Curators: Daniel Muzyczuk and Agnieszka Pindera
Assistant Commissioner: Joanna Waśko

Organizer of the exhibition: Zachęta — National Gallery of Art, Warsaw
www.zacheta.art.pl

Konrad Smoleński, an active participant in both the independent music scene and the visual art scene, blends punk-rock aesthetics with minimalist precision. Everything Was Forever, Until it Was No More is a sculptural instrument that reproduces, at regular intervals, a music piece written for bronze bells, wide range loudspeakers, and other resonating objects. The composition is based on a contrast between the symbolically rich sound of the bells and the abstract resounding noise. By using a delay effect, Smoleński offers an insight into a world where history has come to a standstill, thereby approaching the radical propositions of contemporary physics with its perception of the passage of time as an illusion.

The exhibition is accompanied by a publication featuring texts by Craig Dworkin, Alexandra Hui, Andrey Smirnov, as well as Daniel Muzyczuk and Agnieszka Pindera, who, in their previous projects undertaken together or individually, have already commented on the problems pertaining to the field of the history of science and sound. Supplementing this interdisciplinary book are interviews with a physicist Julian Barbour, a philosopher Simon Critchley, a legend of electro acoustic music Eugeniusz Rudnik, and the curator Thibaut de Ruyter.

Bells’ casting: Kruszewski Brothers Bell Foundry
Bells’ construction assembly and engine: PRAIS Company
Audio equipment: Tomasz Marek Stage Service
Architecture: Agnieszka Staszek and Anna Galek
Photo documentation: Bartosz Górka
Graphic design: Dagny and Daniel Szwed – Moonmadness
Web development: Rafał Jara – Fabric

Polish participation in the 55th International Art Exhibition in Venice was made possible through the financial support of Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland.
The exhibition is organized in cooperation with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.

more: www.labiennale.art.pl

www.facebook.com/polishpavilion

Photo: © Modernism.ro