Czarna Gallery is located in an old apartment, on the second floor of a pre World War II building. Conceptually, the activities and the programme of the gallery are strongly connected to this domestic space and its interior. Preserving its original function of apartment, the gallery provides the opposite of the often cold sterility of the white cube space. The gallery’s residency program follows the form of this apartment/gallery concept, allowing artists to live and work in the space and occupy its realm as their home and their studio. The artists have the potential to see this process through to exhibition stage.
Artist in residence for summer 2008 is British artist Tom Ellis from MOT International Gallery (London). The content of his show is drawn from the book Tom Kultury, which describes in text and images the Polish cultural scene in the 1950s. The language barrier created by the Polish text means that Ellis can only draw on the most basic visual impact of its imagery. He describes the book as his ‘fast food access to Polish culture’ and his lack of real knowledge of its history as ‘the most powerful tool with which to enter the cultural context of Warsaw’.
- What made you come to Warsaw for this residency?
- I came to make Polish work.
- What did you expect from the place?
- Nothing. And everything.
- What was the first artwork you ever made?
- The table piece - If I get the Maine Commission I’ll take you on this table. I was four.
- Your work combines painting, furniture design, sculpture and travel. What’s the connection between these activities?
- The first three are just types of activity - all completely interchangeable. I like to travel becasue it allows me to enter a cultural context straight up through the floor. Lots of artists like to brush up on their knoweldge of the foreign culture in which they are going to work. For me their approach is like politely knocking on the front door before knocking it down anyway.
- What was the idea for your solo show in czarna gallery?
- I had no idea, just a set of tools, some money and my various activities to bring into action as and when I found some Polish material to work with. Then I found Tom Kultury, a book on Polish culture in which I cannot read a single word. Perfect. Job done, as we like to say in England.
- Can you actually play the piano you asked me to rent for you?
- Not really.
