Monika Sosnowska

Capitain Petzel is pleased to announce the third solo show by Warsaw-based artist Monika Sosnowska at the Berlin gallery. The exhibition presents three sculptures entitled Gate, originally conceived in 2014 for Ginza Maison Hermès Le Forum in Tokyo.

In producing Gate—as in the case of previous projects such as 1:1 (2007), Stairway (2010) or Tower (2014)—Sosnowska started from actual-size architectural elements. Three gates typical for post-war architecture in Warsaw, were taken as point of departure for the fabrication of the steel-structures suspended from the ceiling of the gallery´s main space. By twisting, stretching, and resetting the initial configuration of the models she created new objects detached from the functionality distinctive of the former gates.

Based on observation, Sosnowska’s diverse body of work can be understood as a comment on the modernist paradigm and its specific regional implementation in Poland during the Polish People’s Republic (1944–1989). As pointed out by Reiko Setsuda, the curator of Ginza Maison Hermés Le Forum, Sosnowska’s sculptures reject the geometric stateliness of the past and embrace the imperfection and contrasts of the complex post-war Warsaw urban landscape: “Sosnowska salvages structures that have been lost in the tide of history, while asking us to consider the impossibility of the Utopias that we nonetheless seem inherently bound to seek.”[1]

Monika Sosnowska (born in Ryki, Poland) lives and works in Warsaw. Her work has recently been featured in one-person exhibitions at Muzeum Susch, Engadin (2017); Indianapolis Museum of Art (2016); Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves, Porto; Ginza Maison Hermès Le Forum, Tokyo (both 2015); Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg (2014); Pérez Art Museum Miami; Aspen Art Museum; Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne (all 2013); K21, Düsseldorf (2010–2012); Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art (2010), Schaulager, Basel (2008); Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz (2007); The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2006); Serpentine Galleries, London (2004). In 2007 Sosnowska represented Poland at the 52nd Venice Biennale.

[1] Reiko Setsuda, Monuments to Imperfection, exh. booklet, Ginza Maison Hermès Le Forum (Tokyo, 2015).