Iza Tarasewicz: The Means, the Milieu

About

It’s not a metaphor. It functions. The Means, the Milieu is a factory, a hospitable culture—a subterranean mycobiota. Iza Tarasewicz punctured the basement space at Objectif Exhibitions with thousands of metal rods. Bent and interconnected, they hang from the ceiling in a suspended modular lattice, which is again intercut by clusters of overlapping, almost cellular, hexagonal forms. A number of growing eukaryotic organisms have been enfolded into its intertwined geometric structure—encircled by base materials and stalactitic receptacles, a half-kilometre of caotchouc-infused hemp rope and fibre plates of ash-infused caotchouc.

Rust, rubber, yellow ochre, char, and the luminous qualities of medical mushrooms pervade, and an unconfirmed past hovering in the basement is reanimated. It’s the perfect climate. The pipes lining the ceiling, which extend upwards to the many residential apartments above, regulate the temperature of what is already a humid basement. In that way, the neighbours transfer significant energy—doing the dishes, taking a hot bath, unawarely stimulating a mushroom, remotely. Yet Tarasewicz’s biological forms are influenced by other, more far-flung people too. She brought alien forms into being and view through conversations with an underground diamond trader, an amateur mycologist, a puppeteer, and through the collective skill sets of acquaintances, family members, and a driver specialising in trafficking construction materials (and now art).

Everything is hand made. Every production decision extends from a flexible practice. It’s a conversation we can’t hear—microbes conversing with microbes, fungi developing their cryptic lifestyles.

Iza Tarasewicz (b. 1981, Bialystok, Poland; lives in Bialystok) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts, Poznan, Poland (2008). She has exhibited her work in solo exhibitions at Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (2014); Polish Institute, Berlin (2014); Krolikarnia X. Dunikowski Museum of Sculpture, Warsaw (2013); ARTISTERIUM, International Contemporary Art Exhibition and Events, Tbilisi (2011); Gallery Labirynt, Lublin (2011); Platan Gallery, Budapest (2011); Stereo Gallery, Poznan (2010); Arsenal Gallery, Bialystok (2009); and in group exhibitions at BWA Contemporary Art Gallery, Katowice (2014); Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (2014); Center Of Contemporary Art, Torun (2013); Arsenal Gallery, Power Station, Bialystok (2013); Dunikowski Museum of Sculpture, Warsaw (2012); Kuenstlerhaus Dortmund (2012); Frutta Gallery, Rome (2012); J Gallery, Geneva (2011); Spokojna Gallery, Warsaw (2011); Europe House, Tbilisi (2011); Art Villa Garikula, Khaspi (2011); and many others. From 2013-14, she was an artist-in-residence at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany.

Objectif Exhibitions would like to thank the Polish Institute, Brussels, for supporting this exhibition.