Michał Sosna

Pink Hole (2009)

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

Michał Sosna – born in 1982, graduated from The Studies of Organisation of Film and Television Production and Photography, Krzysztof Kieślowski
Faculty of Radio and Television, University of Silesia in Katowice. He carries out film and photo projects and is interested in devaluation and equality of all symbols and values in the modern media.

The characters of a Pink Hole photographic project are maniac effigies trying to entertain the viewer with cheap attractions, being like blow-up  TV-stars. They invite us to their world with the methods they know best – presenting sexual attractions, violence, cheap wit, gaud and kitsch. Rarely credible, in love with themselves, they slowly reach their goal – they become more and more popular, dragging up the audience into the abyss.
The Pink Hole project focuses on, derives from and ironises the creation of the reality in the everyday media. It is a pastiche on democratisation, devaluation of all the values and symbols, used cynically and commercially in the mass media.

The situations in the photos are shown from the point of view of a self-establishing effigy, which tries to grab the largest audience. Michał Sosna's works were not created for little girls. For the big ones – definitely. But not for the little ones. Interestingly, it is easy to be deluded with them. Pink. The aggressive one, straight calling – in many tones and hues. Hair curls are plaiting, extending colourful ribbons. Beautiful figures, fancy clothes, piles of teddy bears. All those elements are situated by the artist in a hotel stage setting – he directs an action in a sham-doll house. It is him who becomes the centre of the action, being personally pointed at one of the photos. Each following photo gives us, however, a small portion of the director's power – pulling back the curtains and allowing us to look into the following rooms. To peep.

Figures presented in the photos seem to have made the hotel their home, they feel there quite naturally. There is no fear that the residents of the neighbouring rooms would complain about the noise or that they would protest. They are too occupied with their own business. Each of the queer floors is inhabited by the guests from dream visions – are they nightmares? A figure hidden in a latex costume, submissive to sweet chains, desires to reach an inaccessible physical ideal. In a neighbouring room, the winged thoughts of a masked man are imprisoned with a gag, still, his sight of an inspired poet reveals a lot… In the other room – there is a bombastic princess, old-youngish one, sinking in satin and tulle. One might guess that in a neighbouring room, standing next to the mirror, there is a getter of a sweet child straining, doing it according to totally different from her daughter's trends. The archetype of a mother.

Not all rooms are single. In double rooms, it looks equally… interesting? There is a struggle for life going on, a man – the trapper and hunter – is handing out the cards. In another room, there is a woman seeking the favour of a man, who's oblivious to her charms. The room seems to bear the traces of several hours of such endeavours, although the man is concentrated on his rather than his companion physicality… Two women, fully dressed (and still looking frivolously) seem to be waiting. Agog, still bored. They have been waiting for long, clearly with no visible result. Waving nervously with their feet shod with golden heels, they remain in place in disciplinary fashion. Like a toy-boy, chained to the radiator, blissfully
surrender to his mistress' care. Is she taking care of him for his or her own sake? From all the hotel’s residents, only her and a woman in black,
exorcising the real plastic doll in an adjacent room – which is surprising here – represent the women in control of the situation. Does a man, who appears suddenly in front of a woman, want to gain or buy her power? Or does he want to seek favour with her with a gift he carries in his briefcase
– to add it to the collection of curiosities? He seems to be examined – will he turn out to be worthy ?

Michał Sosna's works arouse concern and curiosity does not allow us to turn our eyes away from them. Some of his works entertain, drag us into a game of tracking less or more hidden meanings. Being charmed with neatness of a demiurge - artist, we are being seduced by his creation. Complex stage designs are absorbing us, we are opening the last door. The flash is dazzling! Could it be the stylized incarnation of the author of the series? Is our presence in the hotel being documented right now and will we join the collection?

Karolina Harazim