Prague, May 5 – June 20, 2021, https://futuraprague.com
Poniatowski works with old carpets, artificial leather etc. He “upcycled” these materials into weird three-dimensional shapes, that somehow remind furniture or… sculpture. A sculpture that satisfies the stereotypical dustiness of post-communist Eastern Europe even 30 years after the regime changed. Old interior textiles with out of fashion pattern that slowly come into fashion as retro again, old furniture and interior decorations made from dark wood, fake leather sofas…
Poniatowski did his best effort to place his object into an installation setting, setting up a fake fooden floor into which some objects were partially submerged, a careful installation of individual sculptures into the underground vaults of Futura Project.
The sculptures themselves… somehow did not satisfy me completely. It was a specific technique using plastic thingies, applied to a specific material (old interior textile), repeated over and over again. What was the point? What did these shapes stand for? Why these shapes made out of this material?
Mixed feelings.
