The festival's main exhibiton – „Beauty and His Beast"


Tamás Ábel – Hungary; Simone Crestani – Italy; Merle Kannus – Estonia; Alison Lowry – Ireland; Alena Matĕjka – Czech Republic; Joanna Manousis – UK;  Richard Meitner – USA / Netherlands; Artis Nimanis – Latvia; Yoshiko Okada – Japan / France; Tanja Pak – Slovenia; Nataliya Vladychko – Ukraine / Netherlands; Lars Widenfalk – Sweden; Iwona Demko, Dąbrówka Ida Huk, Antonina Joszczuk, Marzena Krzemińska-Baluch – Poland

curator: Anita Bialic

Wrocław – 22.10.2019 – 10.11.2019 – Wrocław Central Train Station – Session Room
Legnica – 19.12.2019 – 01.02.2020 – Art Gallery in Legnica – Plac Katedralny 1
Łódź – 06.02.2020 – 07.03.2020 – City Art Gallery – Re:Medium Gallery
Jelenia Góra – 14.03.2020 – 10.05.2020 – the Karkonosze Museum


BEAUTY AND HIS BEAST

On the cover of the March edition of American “Vogue” there is Justin Bieber, the teenage idol, with Hailey Baldwin, who he married a few months previously. The features of the small and delicate model have been masculinised in the picture, and her figure has been shown as much more massive than in reality.

The photograph has provoked a heated discussion about the roles and inclinations of both protagonists, probably in accordance with the intention of the editorial team. “She looks more masculine here than he does!” the couple’s fans protested.

When presenting a woman in a dominant position, do we insult her and her partner, as suggested by commentators under the Bieber’s photo in “Vogue”? Can a small and innocent man maintain the function of alpha male, and if so, what does it mean today? And finally: how many personal experiences and inclinations can an artist include in seemingly non-personal representations of women and men?

A man in a pink shirt and a woman in a suit... At the turn of the 21st century women and men have rid themselves of the burden of sociocultural gender not only in professional and family life, but also in fashion, outward appearance, the way of spending free time or expressing emotions. Contemporary women have enfranchised themselves using “male” rationality, giving men the right to cry and a fatherly instinct.

He is beautiful, and she is the beast? The theme of the main exhibition of the 7th edition of the European Glass Festival suggests perverse images that provoke the imagination, and release personal experiences, memories and emotions.

Anita Bialic – curator

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