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KODRY

Traditional kodras [plural from” kodra”] are rectangular cut-outs made of coloured papers, once hung in rustic rooms. These decorations depicted floral motives, animals, genre scenes: marriages and parties, everyday life at the countryside, fieldwork and rites. KODRAS cycle was created as an artistic interpretation of an element characteristic for Polish folk art, and involves replacing old motives with scenes from lives of contemporary Poles. This cycle represents a wide spectrum of different areas of existence (family shopping in a shopping centre, office work or elite relax at a golf course) and is in a way a group portrait of life in contemporary Poland set in the context of capitalist transformations, as well as traditions that although they are new are already relatively well-rooted in our country. With reference to the measure applied by Władysław Reymont in his The Peasants novel, where he portrayed human existence in close relationship with changing seasons of the year – these works aim at depicting lives of contemporary people, where the biological rhythm of nature was replaced by the rhythm of social and cultural events (festivals and holidays, etc.). The ancient technique encapsulates the formal essence of these works, whose idea bases on combining the folk culture with modern elements and adjusting it creatively to contemporary times.

KODRAS cycle is created within the framework of a scholarship from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.