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Maciej Szańkowski, „Ława”, projekt 1982, realizacja 1986, szary marmur, Berlin, Kranoldplatz, photo Andrzej Pieńkos, 2007
Licencja: CC BY-SA 4.0, Źródło: Instytut Polonika, Warunki licencji
Fotografia przedstawiająca Sculpture \"Bench\" by Maciej Szankowski in Berlin
Maciej Szańkowski, „Ława”, projekt 1982, realizacja 1986, szary marmur, Berlin, Kranoldplatz, photo Andrzej Pieńkos, 2007
Licencja: CC BY-SA 4.0, Źródło: Instytut Polonika, Warunki licencji
Fotografia przedstawiająca Sculpture \"Bench\" by Maciej Szankowski in Berlin
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ID: POL-001335-P

Sculpture "Bench" by Maciej Szankowski in Berlin

ID: POL-001335-P

Sculpture "Bench" by Maciej Szankowski in Berlin

The composition of three separate blocks of grey marble (of which the central one serves as the city bench), laid out on the granite paving stones of the square, is a variation on the theme of classical architecture: crushed and broken beams. In doing so, it is reminiscent of some of Szańkowski's monumental projects, which are dominated by stone in various stages of processing, with its archetypal wealth of meanings, as well as authentic cobblestones; the urban context also plays an important role. On many occasions, the artist addresses the problem of inscribing the sculptural form into both real and symbolic space. He also has other monumental realisations in marble (a monolithic outdoor sculpture in Prilep, Macedonia). The work was created as part of an international symposium on stone sculpture in Berlin, over a period of four years and the result of a team of sculptors solving the task of unconventional development of an urban square. In Szankowski's abstract sculpture, reminiscences of classical architecture have appeared before, such as the shattered columns in the design of the Warsaw Uprising monument. Here, this decorative motif also stems from the team's agreement: it was to appear in all the sculptures.

'It is a paraphrase of an antique frieze not devoid of a distinctly mocking note. It also seems to be the only nod to the postmodern trend fashionable in the 1980s in his work, or perhaps his response to the challenge posed to artists by deconstructivism."
(Bożena Kowalska)

Undoubtedly, Szańkowski's work is the most artistically mature of all the sculptures exhibited in the square, referring to a deep search for an interpretation of space. As early as 1991, this is how Maria Anna Leśniewska characterised it:

"It brings to life shapes unfolding from within, almost flowing, transforming their form before our eyes. (...) Specific meditations on transience, on naturally shaped or naturally destroyed form, quotations from the archaeology of art, serve to reveal the relationship between works of nature and human exploration."

Related persons:
Time of origin:
design 1982, implementation by 1986
Creator:
Maciej Szańkowski (rzeźbiarz)(preview)
Bibliography:
  • B. Kowalska, Maciej Szańkowski, Warszawa 1996 (kat. wyst. w Galerii Zachęta i Orońsku), s. 61.
Keywords:
Author:
prof. Andrzej Pieńkos
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