When: 24.04–27.09.2020
Opening: 24 April, 19:00 (due to the pandemics, the exhibition will in all probability open online)

Until restrictions are lifted, the exhibition will only be available online.

Exhibition and book conceived by: Mirosława Rochecka
Curated by: Mirosława Rochecka and Kazimierz Rochecki
Coordinated by: Paulina Kuhn
Produced by: Wojciech Ruminski
Arranged by: Kazimierz Rochecki
Sound by: Jędrzej Roch Rochecki

Works on the exhibition and the accompanying book, conceived in 2017, have been in progress since. The artists invited by Mirosława Rochecka and Kazimierz Rochecki, the curators, had two years to come up with works inspired by excerpts from the Revelation of Saint John the Divine. The display includes 177 artworks by 93 creators from Poland, Denmark, Slovakia, Ukraine, Lithuania, France and Brazil.

Exhibited pieces relate to almost every verse in the Revelation. Evocative visions from the Apocalypse have been filtered through each artist’s sensibility, their experience and the medium they work in, and not less through cultural specificities and the impact of religious traditions in their home countries.

This monumental thematic show coincides with an extraordinary global situation. Coronavirus has shaken the whole world, demonstrating how powerless the achievements of our civilisation are confronted with the unperceivable microbe capable of altering the world order and its preferences. Is this a sign of the approaching Apocalypse – or it is merely a warning? Without a doubt, the Signs of the Apocalypse exhibition, which took three years of preparations, reaches its climax in a very heated moment when the fragility of human life and the inadequacy of established systems and hierarchies of values have become plainly evident and keep us awake at night.

This is possibly the right time to recall the Revelation of Saint John the Divine and to obtain a deep insight into it. Regardless of whether we will be able to view the exhibition directly at the Centre or – due to the pandemic – we will have to visit it online, it is surely worthwhile exploring its content in accordance with the verses of the Apocalypse.

The show is interdisciplinary, grouping works representing classical disciplines, including painting, printmaking, drawing, ceramics and art fabric, as well as those relying on digital techniques and media, such as video art, animation and digital drawing. This visually rich, profound and multi-layered artistic message is accompanied by sound composed and directed by Jędrzej Roch Rochecki. Never before have so many artworks been gathered at one exhibition and in one publication, so scrupulously depicting visions of contemporary artists evoked – verse by verse – by Saint John’s Apocalypse. Especially in the context of current circumstances, this fact makes the Sings of the Apocalypse an artistic enterprise and event of major importance.

Accompanying the exhibition is a bilingual book edited by Professor Mirosława Rochecka which is as much a catalogue as an autonomous publication. It features a new translation of the Apocalypse, made from the original by the Reverend Professor Dariusz Kotecki, with extensive exegetic and theological commentaries prepared especially for this occasion. The entire material has been divided according to the Apocalypse into seven parts, each containing reproductions of artworks relating to the text with short comments provided by artists, and a theoretical essay by one of the invited authors. The publication holds 177 reproductions presenting all works displayed at the exhibition.

The exhibition is accompanied by a bilingual publication – the Signs of the Apocalypse, providing comprehensive documentation of the show and essays by 10 authors – edited by Mirosława Rochecka. It also features a new translation of the Revelation of Saint John the Divine made from the original by the Reverend Professor Dariusz Kotecki.

Artists:

Piotr Badziąg, Stanisław Baj, Michał Bajsarowicz, Andrzej Banachowicz, Anna Barbarowicz, Grzegorz Bednarski, Piotr Będkowski, Stanisław Białogłowicz, Maciej Bieniasz, Wiesława Błażejczyk /s. Natanaela, Beata Bober-Kocoł, Anna Bochenek, Andrzej Boj Wojtowicz, Andrzej Borcz, Tadeusz Boruta, Reynaldo Candia, Magdalena Chomiak, Małgorzata Dawidiuk, Zofia Dąbrowska, Marcin Fausek, Vando Figueirêdo, Fernando Franҫa, Krystyna Garstka-Saran, Jerzy Gąsiorek, Łukasz Gil, Marek Haładuda, Tine Hind, Kamil Jurašek, Andrzej Kałucki, Martin Kellenberger, Krzysztof Kiwerski, Piotr Klugowski, Mirosław Kocoł, Stanisław Kośmiński, Benedykt Kroplewski, Peter Krupa, Marian Waldemar Kuczma, Jolanta Kuszaj, Janusz Lewandowski, Paweł Lewandowski-Palle, Zdzisława Ludwiniak, Artur Majka, Marlena Makiel-Hędrzak, Władysław Maławski, Wiesława Markiewicz, Mariusz Mikołajek, Dariusz Mlącki, Piotr Młodożeniec, Jolanta Nitka-Nikt, Zdzisław Nitka, Józef Panfil, Leszek Pawlikowski, Felix Pedersen, Krzysztof Pituła, Peter Pollág, Bogdan Przybyliński, Steen Rasmussen, Birthe Reinau, Adriana Rocha, Mirosława Rochecka, Kazimierz Rochecki, Krystyna Rudzka-Przychoda, Michał Rygielski, Tomasz Sadlej, Wojciech Sadley, Aleksandra Simińska, Peter Smik, Krzysztof Sokolovsky, Monika Stefanowska, Rafał Strent, Krystyna Szalewska-Gałdyńska, Marek Szary, Henryk Szkutnik, Bożena Szmelter-Fausek, Iga Święcicka, Urszula Ślusarczyk, Jerzy Tomaszek, Andrzej Tomczak, Michał Trӓger, Aleksandras Vozbinas, Andriy Vynnychok, Oksana Vynnychok, Krzysztof Wachowiak, Jan Jubaal Wasiński, Elżbieta Wasyłyk, Zdzisław Wiatr, Marzena Wilk, Tomasz Wlaźlak, Andrzej Wojciechowski, Anna Wysocka, Adam Zapora, Piotr Zaporowicz, Grażyna Zielińska

Authors of texts:

Magdalena Dembek, Ewa Dryglas Komorowska, ks. Adam Gębalski, Witold Kawecki CSsR, Ks. Dariusz Kotecki, Paulina Kuhn, Mirosław Jasiński, Szymon Stenka, Kazimierz Piotrowski, Mirosława Rochecka

The exhibition and the publication have been subsidised from the budget of the Government of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Voivodeship.

Printing the publication was subsidised by the Municipal Council of the City of Toruń within the scheme of supporting cultural development, protection of cultural property and maintenance of national tradition.

The exhibition and the book are dedicated to two witnesses and prophets of the turn of the 20^th and 21^st centuries, Saint Pope John Paul II on the 100^th anniversary of his birth and the Primate of Poland Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński on the occasion of his beatification coming on the 7^th June 2020.

Tags: exhibition