Artists’ Activities

In Królikarnia, artists carry out their own research, educational and social projects with the participation of the public. This year, Krzysztof Żwirblis has explored nearby Sielce, Elżbieta Jabłońska is going to plant a garden in the Park and invite inhabitants of the district of Mokotów to cultivate it, while Katarzyna Kozyra will come to live in the palace together with activists from Poland and Ukraine, thus initiating a discussion on the situation in Ukraine and Russia.

Many such actions took place here that affected their viewers as well as the creators. For instance, Piotr Wysocki’s project combined reflection on political situation, the mysticism of the pacifist section of Islam with reflection on the significance of sculptural representations. The artist invited refugees to hold the Islamic Zikr ceremony. It is a mystical, trans-like prayer in a circle. In Arabic it stands for remembering, in Islam – for thinking about Allah. For the praying people, these action was performed to produce a genuine effect. They prayer for the return to their homeland and peace in Caucasus.

In Królikarnia, Zikr was carried out among marble sculptures – figurative representations forbidden by the Koran. Participants covered the forbidden statues: Mother of God, portrait of Józef Piłsudski, Satyr with a nymph, or classical nudes. On the one hand, Królikarnia turned into a mosque, on the other – the men praying in a circle, inscribed within the space of the rotunda forms a figure – a sculpture.