The artist examines a variety of puzzling phenomena that occur in the home environment, nagging illusions, failures of the imagination and metaphysical revelations.

The first solo exhibition of Karolina Konopka at Galeria Bielska BWA presents the artist’s latest work, including site-specific objects, sculptures, paintings and video art. The theme of the exhibition is the documentation of a daily life, which evolves into a manifestation of political life. Karolina Konopka is interested in domestic anomalies, abject situations, which she encapsulates in random scenes that serve as evocative images with elements of horror.

While intimate stories become demystified, politics takes centre stage at home, appearing as a nightmare and making a well-structured domestic life lead to sacrifices, such as withdrawal from community life. The artist seeks an antidote to helplessness in small pleasures and socializing.

Paulina Darłak, curator:

The exhibition To the last tear drop by Karolina Konopka presents a new series of works in which the artist uses the subversive potential of rituals, rites and intimate domestic practices to create narratives based on every-day, seemingly trivial activities, such as preparing food, creating a space or moving around in it, which become a way of rousing oneself from a bad dream.

The tear drops in the title, which form as a result of utting onions, are a somatic symptom set outside the psychotherapeutic discourse. The tears express neither negative nor positive affectation, but become a manifestation of a routine domestic activity - a persistent struggle against everyday difficulties, to the last drop. The artist explores how small activities requiring minimal agency can become a form of consolation, especially in the face of the exhaustion typical of episodes of stagnation and burnout. Karolina Konopka moves freely through a variety of media, creating semi-autobiographical narratives that are firmly rooted in everyday life, which she places in the broader context of the tensions arising from political change and the build-up of crises, both social and private.

The artist looks at the phenomena occurring in domestic settings that arouse wonder, nagging illusions, failures of imagination and metaphysical revelations. Phenomenon is a word that suggests a break in the familiar, a dissonance, a fleeting glimpse beyond the mundane which reveals the presence of something unknown. This exhibition features phenomena that somehow appear familiar, and yet harbour a kind of eclectic matter of a dream. This state of ‘in-between’ makes us view them with suspicion. Lingering, hidden and forgotten remnants of delight and leftovers of pleasure take the form of a domestic phantom. Unnecessary, accumulating, desperately packed objects evoke the presence of Kikimora - an evocation of ancient beliefs, a domestic phantom, bringing dirt and clutter to the corners from all the abandoned possessions. Kikimora is a metaphor for the inner chaos that entangles dreams and transforms them into recurring nightmares. Fear of her created protective rituals - the most straightforward way to chase her away was to keep things in order. It was believed that the nightmare would not appear in a spotless household, where everything was in its right place. According to folk tradition, a dirty house means a sad life.

House interiors are not only about the householder, but also about their inner fantasies, secrets, habits, automatisms, behavioural mechanisms - ritualistic or intrusive. Karolina Konopka observes the complex relationship between everyday rituals and psychological and social functionality. She explores the impact of domesticity on collective experiences, the politics of everyday life - between theory, fiction, divination and myth, both in the material and symbolic layers. Immersion in tears leads to transformation, the potential of which is found in stories of intimacy, private and social life.

Tears, like guests, often appear uninvited. A party, is a social situation in which more latitude is allowed. A hole in time intended for carefree fun that holds the promise of a break from complex reality by momentarily stopping and lifting each other's spirits.