Everyman - 2025
For the past two decades, an anonymous, neutral figure in a grey suit has appeared as a tester of objects created within the Poor Design project. He has been the protagonist of photographs and short, looped, neurotic video pieces. It was this very persona who once sat upside down in a rocking chair, scrubbed the floor with a bar of gold, and blew soap bubbles without using his hands. He also applauded the image of a perfect (dead) family gazing into the fire in a site-specific installation at Cricoteka. There have been many such surreal situations, and in each of them, the figure remained in the background. The true actors, so to speak, were the objects themselves.
But who is this character? Who is the man persistently using objects, allowing himself to be humiliated, to assume uncomfortable poses? Over time, his suit grew more wrinkled, more carelessly worn. He is Everyman — a metaphor for the ordinary citizen, consumer, voter, or petitioner. A driver, passer-by, client, and worker. Like a character from Tadeusz Różewicz’s writings, he is stripped of distinct traits yet represents the condition of being human, defined by context and the viewer’s own sensitivity.
The exhibition Everyman turns the camera around. After years, it finally reveals the one who has long remained in the shadows — in fact, the true protagonist of all the works produced over the past two decades. It was always his story, told through the language of props and designed objects. Now he appears sauté, devoid of any attributes. His only defining feature is his face, which—like a distorted mirror—reflects the images of those who look at him. Sometimes it averts their gaze, contorts, slips to the other side, or disappears altogether. Stripped of any utilitarian purpose, he becomes a worthless mannequin.