- Film & Video
- Installation
- Interdisciplinary Project
Thou art neither cold nor hot!
Agata Michowska / Anna Orlikowska
3 July 2026 19:00 – 5 July 2026 19:00
The project title, drawn from the Book of Revelation, calls for a decisive stance. Lukewarmness – lingering in suspension, indifference, or the refusal to take a clear position – is presented here as the most troubling of all possible attitudes.
The project unites two works: the three-channel video installation "Longing for the End of the World" by Anna Orlikowska and the sculpture "IT" by Agata Michowska. Both explore the relationship between the Earth and the Sun – a source of life-giving energy, yet simultaneously a bearer of destructive potential.
"Longing for the End of the World" draws on historical travel accounts of explorers who, 500 years ago, crossed sun-scorched deserts. A quotation, which we hear in the video, describes the arrival at a boundary point from which no one returns – a reflection on the state of our civilization. The centuries-old text resonates today as a warning of a planet overheated and drying, stripped of climatic balance.
"IT", shaped from clay, meditates on the boundary between inanimate matter and life. Its deformed tree-trunk form, blackened and streaked with salt, evokes cooled lava – a trace of sudden, violent transformation. It points to a primordial state from which life can emerge, yet which also harbors the potential for destruction – a threshold whose crossing is simultaneously an act of creation and decay.
The project understands boundaries not as dividing lines, but as transitional spaces and fields of tension – between the life-giving and the destructive, between activity and indifference.
Together, the two works form a cohesive project – formally distinct, yet conceptually complementary. The Sun emerges here as both a source of life and an apocalyptic force. Sculpture and video intertwine Earth and Sun into a symbiotic structure, sustaining life while simultaneously revealing its vulnerability.
The project unites two works: the three-channel video installation "Longing for the End of the World" by Anna Orlikowska and the sculpture "IT" by Agata Michowska. Both explore the relationship between the Earth and the Sun – a source of life-giving energy, yet simultaneously a bearer of destructive potential.
"Longing for the End of the World" draws on historical travel accounts of explorers who, 500 years ago, crossed sun-scorched deserts. A quotation, which we hear in the video, describes the arrival at a boundary point from which no one returns – a reflection on the state of our civilization. The centuries-old text resonates today as a warning of a planet overheated and drying, stripped of climatic balance.
"IT", shaped from clay, meditates on the boundary between inanimate matter and life. Its deformed tree-trunk form, blackened and streaked with salt, evokes cooled lava – a trace of sudden, violent transformation. It points to a primordial state from which life can emerge, yet which also harbors the potential for destruction – a threshold whose crossing is simultaneously an act of creation and decay.
The project understands boundaries not as dividing lines, but as transitional spaces and fields of tension – between the life-giving and the destructive, between activity and indifference.
Together, the two works form a cohesive project – formally distinct, yet conceptually complementary. The Sun emerges here as both a source of life and an apocalyptic force. Sculpture and video intertwine Earth and Sun into a symbiotic structure, sustaining life while simultaneously revealing its vulnerability.
Biography
Agata Michowska / Anna Orlikowska
Agata Michowska graduated in 1990 from the Faculty of Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań. Her artistic practice evolved from reduced spatial works toward photography and video as media for personal reflections on life and death, memory and transformation. She understands sculpture not as a static object, but as a temporal process shaped by change and continuity.
Anna Orlikowska completed her studies in graphic arts and painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź in 2004. Starting from photography, she expanded her practice to include video and installations. At the center of her work is the photographic act as an attempt to capture time and preserve memory. Her works move between documentation and staging.
Anna Orlikowska completed her studies in graphic arts and painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź in 2004. Starting from photography, she expanded her practice to include video and installations. At the center of her work is the photographic act as an attempt to capture time and preserve memory. Her works move between documentation and staging.
The next 9 events today