Joanna Piotrowska

Marian Goodman Gallery in Paris is pleased to announce a solo exhibition by Joanna Piotrowska in our space at 66 rue du Temple. The artist presents an original installation of black-and-white silver prints, collages and photograms. With a scenography specially designed for the exhibition, she conjures up a strange, dreamlike atmosphere that echoes her childhood memories and our collective unconscious, creating an intimate settingwhere fragments of bodies and objects, and people of the past and present, interact.

Staged using a large curtain and a pink carpet that uniquely combine theatrical and domestic stylings, the exhibition includes works in a variety of framings, compositions and formats which weave subtle links with each other. The first work is emblematic of Piotrowska's practice of artificial situations and elusive images: a woman, in an obscured profile, leans over and caresses a partially faceless woman lying on the floor, holding her hand as she does so. The two figures, collaged against a background of wood veneer typical of the 1980s furnishings in Poland, where the artist grew up, form a timeless and enigmatic tableau.

In Piotrowska's world, objects also evoke a mysterious presence that resonates with the past, such as a photograph of a small crystal tray, or a diptych of bronze horses hanging from a large velvet curtain in the center of the space. These ordinary items have been deliberately placed into uninhabited apartments the artist discoveredonline, as a personal touch, in the hope of arousing the intrigue of a potential buyer. Piotrowska's interest in objects, especially with those that are part of the domestic space, stems from the idea that they act as catalysts, and like bodies, can evoke both a personal and collective memory.