Magdalena Tyczka

Mirror, mirror on the wall… (2009)

Program: Vernissage Pavilion B Friday (19.03) 09:00 p.m.

Magdalena Tyczka – graduated from the Institute of Design in Koszalin with a Visual Communication profile. She defended a thesis entitled: Visual Identification of the X All-Polish Poetry Contest in Szczecinek. She organized exhibitions of her works in Szczecinek in SZOK Gallery, at the Castle in Świdwin and in CK Zamek in Poznań. The works included the field of drawing, painting, solid and plane's composition. For over 2 years she has been living in Szczecin. In this city, in OFFicyna art place, she realised a concept exhibition: Paintings without paintings. There was also the framework of Westival – Architecture art in 2008, photos – installations: Paintings – cities – pavements in Lentz's Villa. Her next exhibition took place in June 2009 in Brama Jazz Cafe and was related to her memories from Portugal. She is an enthusiast for French and Japan culture as well as secession. She works as a computer graphic.

A pier glass – mirror is smooth, glossy; it is a direct medium of our own, personal presentation. It is glamour. According to the definition – a Mirror – is a smooth surface which reflects light and creates a possibility for people to look at themselves in it. Man's aspirations to gain beauty and perfection become sometimes grotesque, redrawn and lose sense. The advertising- marketing actions of all the cosmetic, pharmaceutical etc. concerns surrounding us, play an important role in propelling our needs to confer on us glitter and glamour polish. They offer us many newer and better means of supporting our mood and look. They are to be a cure for all our defects, traumas, imperfections of human nature. In the world which changes fast, which is full of hurry and competition, being glamorous becomes almost an obligation, it becomes a synonym of distinction,  epresentation, attractiveness. Due to our aiming at unsurpassable, fugitive glamour, our wishing to cope with the outrageous trends of perfect look and life style, a mirror becomes our inseparable attribute. And the famous fairy tale words: Mirror, mirror on the wall, who in the land is fairest of all gain a real meaning. In this lustrous, smooth sheet we want to admire our intense endeavours to be glamorous. This Narcissus' feature is our small stage, where we are both heroes and judges. A project: Mirror, mirror on the wall… is a mirror shaped like a woman's silhouette – a symbol of fashion, chic, stage and media. The mirror woman does not have individual features, she is a smooth, brilliant sheet, perfectly laser cut – out of plexiglass. Hanging on the wall of a gallery, she is a lustrous but reserved picture cut out of the glamour world, the world that allures us, in which we, as common viewers, want to see ourselves so much. What will happen when we stand next to a perfect contour? Will we confront a model's silhouette with our reflection? Will that be a comfortable situation? Or will that create a feeling of misfit, not adjusting to the ideal, alienation? Will the image delight us or leave a sense of emptiness? What impressions will that bring? The answer is left to the viewers.