Da Capo al Fine
Longina Poterek-Krenz
& Anna Krenz
"Incurably Alive" by the artist Longina Poterek-Krenz (1946-2019) from Poznań consists of nine bedsheets embroidered using the applique technique, which depict the image of a woman in nine stages of life development. From a young and "green" girl maturing and discovering in herself, a woman and her own incurably alive nature, through a woman in love, to a woman who gives life - a mother. Nine stages, like the nine months of pregnancy, are a praise of femininity and un/changing nature. The conscious use of a bedsheet, for each most intimate material and at the same time a story with which almost every girl could identify, gives the work vitality and universality.
The work was created in 1988 and during the premiere exhibition at the Arsenal Gallery in Poznań, the artist added an element of her daughter Anna Krenz (born 1976) - a doll of 12-year-old Anna.
Thirty years later, the works are again juxtaposed, but this time Anna's works are banners designed and used by Polish activists in Berlin during protests for women's rights. Banners on lace and curtains, women's materials that hide intimacy but also show the world through the prism of women. The only color that appears is red, which symbolizes blood, but also in combination with white it forms the Polish flag.
Despite generational differences, different attitudes to life, ways of thinking, different characters and techniques of artistic expression, mother and daughter create a dialogue - 30 years ago and today. They both talk about women, but in a completely different way. The mother's works are universal, calm in form and refer to the inner strength of a woman. The daughter's works, created from completely different needs, are a response and record of a political and social moment, as well as a voice in the fight for women's basic rights.
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"Incurably Alive" by Longina Poterek-Krenz was exhibited in Galeria Arsenał BWA in Poznań (1988); Galeria BWA Leszno (1988), Biennale Pollinations, Berlin (2003); Festiwal Nowej Sztuki lAbiRynT in Frankfurt and Słubice (2019); etc.
Incurably Alive
by Longina Poterek Krenz
BWA Gallery Arsenał, Poznań, 1988
(premiere)
It is a personal story...
The starting point is a joint exhibition in Słubice, which I planned in July 2019 with my mother, Longina Poterek-Krenz. We tried to find answers to the questions: who are these women - mother and daughter, so different but similar? What is their individual approach to art? To the women's case? What was the work "Da capo al fine" like in 1988, what was it like in 2019?
Longina Poterek-Krenz was a Poznań-based artist who graduated from the University of Arts (then PWSSP) in Poznań in the early 1970s. In her work, she was always rebellious and followed her own ways - she was the first at the PWSSP to make a spatial installation for graduation (diploma), not a series of flat paper boards. It was a women's-themed installation with specially composed organ music.
She was always interested in themes related to women, just like me - but we are completely different people and we implement them in a completely different way. These differences and similarities were the starting point for the planned exhibition.
In 1988, the BWA Arsenal Gallery in Poznań hosted the opening of the exhibition "Incurably Alive" (later Da Capo al Fine) by Longina Poterek-Krenz. The design consisted of 9 bedsheets with embroidered female figures in shades of white (sometimes color). Due to the different textures and thicknesses of the materials, they look like stained glass windows. It is a story about the maturation of a woman, shown in time - on nine sheets (nine months of pregnancy), where apegeum is childbirth. This work tells about the nature and strength of a woman, the male element is not needed/not visible here. The creative role of women is emphasized, as well as the process of change. Most of us can identify with it.
My Mom was sewing them on the machine, on the kitchen table where she prepared meals, where we ate, where she drew and I did my homework. With dog under the table. These were the times of communism, my mother not only worked professionally, kept partially (or completely) the house, took care of me, the dog, the house, but also the sick mother-in-law who lived with us. She was supporting the whole house, because she could not always count on her husband / my Dad (a conceptual artist) when it comes to mundane matters.
In 1988, I was 12 years old. At the Arsenal exhibition - as part of the installation - my Mom displayed one of the dolls I sewed. In the cycle, it symbolized the "next step" - after the birth a new person comes (the child - me) and the child does her own "works" - in this case a doll.
In the proposed project we wanted to repeat the situation from 30 years ago - a timeless series of Longina's bedsheets, juxtaposed - no longer with a toy (I'm an adult, like she was then) but with my latest works, which I create as an adult (and mother too). These are mainly banners and objects from protests about women's rights, whether in Germany or Poland, which I have done over the last 4 years. They are made on lace but also on other materials like petticoats or pillowcases. These works of mine were created quickly, for a moment. Completely different from my Mom's works.
The works of Longina Poterek-Krenz are universal, they show the strength of a woman - not a struggling woman, but a confident, proud woman as she was. She was a woman embedded in the ground, a person of nature. Living alone in a house with a garden, she looked after plants, grew herbs and flowers, she knew everything about them. She told me about them, but I did not listen, because I am a person from the city and noise. She was not afraid of anything, not even spiders.
And I would never have imagined that my mother would not live to see this exhibition. She passed away at the end of August 2019.
The exhibition did take place few months later.
Anna Krenz, 2019