Program

Artistic Scene of the MFF mBank New Horizons

Opening: 19.07, 7-10 PM (all three galleries)

19.07-13.10.2024

• Krupa Gallery | ul. Księcia Witolda 48/70, Wrocław
• Studio BWA Wrocław | ul. Ruska 46a, segment B, local 103, Wrocław

19.07-2.08, 2.09-13.09.2024

• Entropia Gallery | ul. Rzeźnicza 4, Wrocław

EXHIBITION OPENING HOURS

During the festival:

• Studio BWA Wrocław and Krupa Gallery: daily 12:00 PM – 8:00 PM
• Entropia Gallery: 20-21.07 and 23-27.07 12:00 PM – 8:00 PM

After the festival, from July 28th:

• Krupa Gallery: Thursday–Saturday 2:00 PM – 6:00 PM
• Information on the opening hours of Entropia Gallery and BWA Studio is available on the galleries’ websites

KROKI / STEPS is an artistic project about walking. About the practice, philosophy, culture, politics and art of walking. Three galleries – Studio BWA Wrocław, Entropia Gallery and Krupa Gallery – will show works that reflect on walking, or document the practice of wandering on foot. Artistic scenarios for individual walks, strolls and expeditions within the city will also be offered.

When we walk, the horizon of our experience is defined by the distance we are able to cover on our own feet. The collective exhibition KROKI / STEPS refers to the conceptual and performative foundations of the contemporary reflection on walking in art – from the motif of pilgrimage, through political steps, to walking in the aspect of the migration crisis. From walks in the virtual world to steps leading towards nature. Divided between three galleries located within a close (walking) distance to each other, the exhibition includes film documentation of performances, installations, objects, photographs and even a computer game. Strolling through the brushwood (Krzysztof Maniak), pilgrimages between metropolises (Robert Kuśmirowski), walking along a drying river (Mikołaj Szpaczyński) or crossing a city with a gun (Francis Alys) – these are just some of the diverse forms and meanings of walking on display.

The act of walking does not require any technology. A walker does not leave a carbon footprint. Walking is the most primal and timeless form of man’s relationship with space. The pace at which humans walk has remained constant throughout history, i.e. since our ancestors adopted an upright posture and began walking on two legs. The acceleration of the pace of life, work, consumption and information has not changed it, nor have technological developments. Walking does not occupy the mind but despite this, or rather precisely because of this, it leaves room for thinking – hence its close relationship with philosophising. “Walking, ideally, is a state in which the mind, the body, and the world are aligned, as though they were three characters finally in conversation together, three notes suddenly making a chord”, writes Rebecca Solnit in her book Wanderlust. A History of Walking. In turn, Friedrich Nietzsche – who calls the “patience of the buttocks” a sin against the Holy Spirit – urges in Ecce Homo: “Sit as little as possible”. The philosopher, himself a seasoned and passionate walker, recommended that no thought born in stillness should be trusted. So if there is a path on which to find the broken connections between mind and body, as well as body and the Others – the environment and nature – then the path must be walked.

The project – part of the Art Scene of the mBank New Horizons festival – refers to the film programme dedicated to walking. It is no coincidence: after all, the cinematic history begins with an image of walking people, Lumière Brothers’ Workers Exiting the Factory.