tracing paper, starched cotton, bamboo sticks, wire, iridescent tape / about 30m2 

Part of a group show Landscapes of a Distant Down, 26 September 2025 – 10 January 2026

Curators: Marta Lisok, Zosia Janczy, Roman Lewandowski

Mounted on a mesh structure, Marta Krześlak’s paper-cut installation is divided into two zones. One reflects the dynamics of subterranean plant life—entangled roots and the water pulsating within them. The artist encourages viewers to lower their gaze beneath the surface of the ground, drawing on visual tropes familiar from horror films, where looking underground is synonymous with entering spaces that, for the viewer’s comfort, are meant to remain closed. The sight of tangled roots, threads of mycelium, and the collective labour of decomposition processes becomes a sign of crossing the boundaries of rationality. Passing below the ground line heralds the dissolution of the division between the darkness of the underground and the domesticated rhythm of life above. The comforting image of the soil’s surface as a sealed barrier between these two realms is unsettled, revealing instead its soft, permeable structure—a vulnerable, marshy, and moist element that conditions our existence.

The second part of the installation presents a schematic landscape depicting an idyllic meadow, reminiscent of a child’s paper cut-out. The artist juxtaposes these adjacent environments through the use of two types of lighting, simultaneously evoking sunlight and moonlight. This lighting blurs familiar, domesticated forms while exaggerating plant shapes, which emerge on the wall like figures in a shadow theatre.

Marta Lisok