It is Paracelsus who composed the formula for laudanum, a substance which is at the heartof Piotr Grabowski’s latest work. Based on a combination of alcohol and opium, it is saidto be capable of bringing on a state of relatively unbounded happiness. Grabowski has devised a complex arrangement that takes up the entire gallery space, which is focusedon an analysis of the components that make up this formula. Each magical ingredient is described through contemporary works of painting, making use of new technologies andvivid installations.The artist represents the “reality of the background” which moves away from physical experience and illustrates the fact of such a break by creating a virtual web of experiences. Pearl, coral, amber and other valuable substances represent a variety of actions, such asenveloping oneself in luxury, getting deeper into philosophy or taking a trip in search of happiness and fulfillment. Individualized, strictly opposed, disordered concepts definethe ceaseless pursuit of happiness. Commonly, this is, in fact, a feeling that is unattainable because it tends to be so illusory. Every impression of happiness becomes, in turn, replaced by yet another desire for something else. There is no end to this list, which often raisesthe effort to reach such a state to the rank of a life’s purpose. Its attainment is also tied with finding answers to niggling questions, universal ones, and also those relating to one’s mortality. Sometimes, there is the simple escape from all questions.Grabowski bases his work on these primary emotions, a hope for the future underscoredby fraud, desensitization and passivity. The promise of a great holiday, in praise of life (laudare), turned out to be fulfilled at least momentarily, which meant that, ultimately, the promise is lost. The exhibition attempts to capture the moment just before this loss.The ingredients bubble over with visions of voyages to other dimensions, but they arealso visually appealing in and of themselves, which makes being around them a sensual pleasure, a tempting vision of saccharine ecstasy. It’s only the suitcases arranged in thestaged fragment of an airport hall that bring back echoes of detestable waiting and anultimate lack of fulfillment. Illusions of false solutions come at the heels of one who is inpursuit of happiness.
Marta Czyż