Andrzej Wasilewski resolves the mystery of pleasure. He shows its dual nature and in this respect seems to share the diagnosis by Jacques Lacan . The promise of maximum pleasure is compiled with a warning against extreme disgust. Both of these opposites are inevitable and closely related. Wasilewski combines charm with rot. He compiles images of women, images refferring to the readily achievable and non-binding pleasure (for heterosexual men of course) with the images of rotting fruit. The fruit of pleasure is intrinisically bad. He combines sex appeal with disintegration.

The artist puts together the images of attractive girls with the images of piled-up bones and dead men. Love, especially the sexual one, is lined with death, because the fulfillment of one’s desire, as argued by psychoanalysis, is irrevocably associated with annihilation. Or perhaps annihilation and disintegration are the most appealing.

When choosing the style of femininity, defined as pin-up, Wasilewski treats it more as an emblem for the promise of easily attainable pleasure that the pop culture, and advertisement in particular, mislead us with. He uses its visual language in order to add charm and lure to the things we would rather not know or not remember about. Can we imagine an advertisement of something disgusting or frightening? Andrzej Wasilewski creates a semblance of such an advertisement, and by using the power of its temptation, he shows what we do not want to see.

curator: Kamil Kuskowski

Exhibition accompanying 9. International Festival of Photography in Łódź.

Actual Art Zona / Zona Sztuki Aktualnej
Tymienieckiego 3, Łódź
www.zona-art.pl