Artissima Torino: Mia Dudek
November 3, 2023 — November 5, 2023
Galeria Foco – Artissima Torino, OVAL Lingotto Fiere, Torino
On the occasion of the solo presentation of the Polish artist Mia Dudek and Foco Gallery, a short text describing their project for the stand at the Italian art fair Artissima was written.
Inside Out
Mia Dudek’s solo booth presentation “Inside Out” is her first participation in Artissima. Following her last solo exhibition at the Foco Gallery, adapted to the scale of an art fair, the stand showcases the artist’s explorations into photography, sculpture, painting and installation. Dudek’s work addresses the question of whether a dwelling can be considered a body with skin and entrails and whether the body can be seen as a form of erotic architecture. The artist investigates the concept of broken physicality between individuals and represents the abstracted, fragmented body, detaching and reformalizing it into new structures. Restrictive environments are inescapable but also contain otherwise formless and fluid bodies that threaten to spill over the borders of inanimate structures.
At the Turin exhibition centre, metal structures used in construction rise from the floor of the stand to welcome the “Fruiting Bodies” series, where the artist has immortalised the organic body of a mushroom in a colourful palette of fluidity. In the same way, a large concrete block which preserves the trace of the organ’s body like fossils, appears as a museum-like dispositif of a bench for viewers to pause. The trompe l’oeil of the large painting “The Painter Was Here”, mimicking the plaster wall used in construction, questions viewers about the relationship between the painting’s artistic approach and the actual house painter. While the work “Abstraction III”, folded latex brings sensuality, the human body in the form of skin as a barrier between the outer and inner world, resistant and fragile at the same time. The photograph “Inside Outside” carries the project’s title and also the central idea – the legacy of architecture and its relationship to the body, investigating notions of displacement and ‘organ habitation’.
Dudek's work explores the idea of making a home in different places and its relation to the multiple situating between Lisbon, Warsaw and London. Her approach to connecting with different environments speaks to the need for a certain kind of connection in order to truly inhabit a place and make it a home. The use of fungal and mycelial networks, along with the idea of testing the resilience of her materials, reflects this, which is a recurring theme in her work. The use of diffused light gives her work a mythical quality and creates a sense of impermanence, which is further emphasised by the use of iridescence.
Adapted to a booth at an art fair, the exhibition is designed to create a new architecture that resembles a deconstructed house and studio, inviting viewers to make themselves comfortable and enter a more intimate space. It suggests a sense of process and the idea of creating oneself and one's environment at the same time. "Inside Out" invites contemplation of the complexities of identity, place and belonging in our increasingly interconnected world.