Curatorial Notes

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Project Space Fondazione Marta Czok Venice presents its first exhibition entirely conceived for its windows. Curated by Jacek Ludwig Scarso, this selection of works by Marta Czok is accessible 24hrs and offers a unique perspective into the idea of looking in. From domestic scenes, to busy workplaces and surreal landscapes, these intimate worlds are populated by characters and their stories, in Marta Czok’s signature style, at once playful and evocative. The window, whether physical or metaphorical, embodies the viewer’s desire to peep into other worlds: an act of curiosity, escapism and engagement with the real and the fictional.

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The selection includes works from different periods in Marta Czok’s ouvre. Czok’s signature split houses open up into playful tableaux: just as we might look into a doll’s house, we are invited to peruse each scene, delighting ourselves in each story, each character relationship. The busyness of home can be interpreted as symbolic here, drawing on Czok’s lived experience growing up in 1950s London from a family of Polish refugees – looking inside people’s houses became a crucial activity in understanding a newly-found social context and the community on which this was centred. For a foreign child, this engendered in Czok a sense of belonging; indeed, of feeling at home.

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In contrast, works from the Wunderkammer cycle offer a more surreal interpretation of peeping in. Mysterious faces, mirroring our own position as spectators, secretly look into cryptic scenes: insects, toys and found objects populate these elusive worlds, at once fantastical and haunting.

 

Are you and Art Collector? This particular selection of works is also available for purchase. Contact us to find us more: you can send us a WhatsApp text on:

+39 339 438 2094 (Italia)

+44 796 797 1864 (International)

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