Façade

Monika Sosnowska (Riky, Poland, 1972)
Commissioned by: IHEID

In the middle of the lobby at the Maison de la paix, Monika Sosnowska’s sculpture belies its 750 kilograms, seeming to float in the air, slender and light. It is a coiling, metallic, structural fragment hung from the ceiling, offering its interlacing, superimposed black lines to the eyes of visitors. Its openwork form is inspired by a modernist Polish building constructed in the 1960s: the artist recreated the composition of its façade, which she reinterprets in metal, then transforms, softens, contorts and hangs in the air as if it were a draping baroque fabric. Monika Sosnowska sees architecture as both and individual and collective expression of memory, one that relentlessly pervades her work. The reference to Eastern European modernist esthetics and architecture is a key element of her approach: it represents the memory of the utopias of the 20th century, and enables the artist to confront those of the 21st century, while evoking a personal artistic heritage. Her installation Façade radically changes how we approach, perceive and experience the space in which it hangs. Like the molding of a piece of architecture, the artist translates the structure of the frame into an expressive sculptural element.
Article commissioned by P3Art
Notice: Séverine Fromaigeat, translation: Matthew Cunningham