CONTROLFRICTION

Oct 21 – Nov 11, 2022

Karolina Bielawska, Agata Bogacka, Agnieszka Grodzińska, Julia Gryboś & Barbora Zentková, Katarzyna Korzeniecka, Katharina Schmidt, Małgorzata Szymankiewicz

curator: Jagna Domżalska

Whether we are thus referred to by someone else or use the word ourselves, “control freak” has quite a negative tinge to it. At its best, it is only somewhat acrimonious; however, it sounds the cruelestl when applied to oneself. And yet, it is only one way for someone to function. Let us acknowledge that the habit of keeping things under control or putting them in order manifests
a rhythm. And the latter never occurs independently.

Rhythm grows more intriguing when it is disturbed. It becomes noticeable when something
about it changes. The rhythm is even more clearly conspicuous when it encounters rift or a fault.
A departure reveals a principle. The principle and the deviation are connected and provide reciprocal reinforcement. They legitimize and empower each other.

The need to systematize, or perhaps the very predilection for rhythm—or rhythms—is what the Controlfriction artists share. They find or produce arrays, play or collaborate with them. Also, they all exploit deviations from rhythm or systemic contravention—a mere mistake at times—as an equivalent means of artistic expression. To the same extent as order, they make deliberate use
of chance. The exhibition, however, is not about the formal aspect or the creative method itself.
The tension between the controlled gesture and giving free rein to randomness, or rather balancing between these two modalities of creation and their equivalence, offer a pretext
for interpreting “control freakdom” and its rehabilitation. The need for constant control may involve, even stem from a desire to liberate oneself from it.

Why do we say control freak and not control friend?