Beyond Documentation Imaginations Emerge. Anna and Krystian Jarnuszkiewicz

Beyond Documentation Imaginations Emerge.
Anna and Krystian Jarnuszkiewicz

Arton Foundation
Foksal 11/4, Warsaw
30 May–19 June 2025
Opening: 30 May 2025, 7 pm

Organisers:
Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw
Faculty of Artistic Research and Curatorial Studies
Arton Foundation
Institutional Partner:
The Centre for the Thought of John Paul II

Curators:
Natalia Karpiesiuk, Monika Kozakiewicz, Marta Kwaczyńska, Zuzanna Maciaszek,
Agnieszka Maciejewska, Mikołaj Maciejewski, Marta Matusiak, Julia Mielczarek, Ludmiła Nojszewska, Żak Podolak, Łucja Użarowska
Expert supervision: Katarzyna Jarnuszkiewicz, Dr Marika Kuźmicz

“What are you going to do with all this?”
Many people ask this question. We won’t disappear without a trace. And even when we do disappear, our things remain, dusty barricades.
– Marcin Wicha, Things I Didn't Throw Out

Anna and Krystian Jarnuszkiewicz were a pair of artists whose practices focused on matter and space. Over five decades of shared life, they influenced each another’s work across sculpture, drawing, and photography. As their daughter Katarzyna recalls, their home was always filled with objects brought by her father – seemingly “useless” items, like old sheet metal, chains, or a rusted helmet. All this “junk” was regularly incorporated into his sculptures, giving it new purpose. Additionally, the artists took photographs of the objects placed in different spatial contexts, adding new contexts and further layers of interpretation.

Most of the sculptures have not survived, destroyed or lost over time. Today, the only way to connect with them is through photographic documentation kept by the artists throughout their careers. This documentation bears the hallmarks of a narrative: through manipulation of scale and perspective, the photos redefine the original works, creating new ones in their own right. Photography shifted perception to the visual alone, stripping the material of its tactile presence and transforming it into a two-dimensional image. The physical object receded into imagination.

The concept for this exhibition emerged through meetings with Katarzyna Jarnuszkiewicz – artist, sculptor, set designer, and guardian of her parents’ legacy. Her daily experience of living among the remnants of their work raises questions about the material weight of memory and the burden of accumulated objects. Matter becomes the “weight” of creating a vast archive. Just as physical objects need space, so does digital data: photographs require time and energy to keep them in memory, which does not disappear with the matter – only the medium changes.

The Jarnuszkiewiczs’ work can be seen as a cycle of regeneration: from physicality to new meaning and then loss, from non-existence to existence. A continual circulation of materials – constantly renewed.

Krystian Jarnuszkiewicz (1930–2016)
He studied sculpture at the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Wrocław (1952–1956) in the studio of B. Michałowski, and later at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (1956–1958) under J. Jarnuszkiewicz and O. Hansen. From 1977, he taught at the Faculty of Industrial Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. He co-authored numerous entries for public sculpture competitions and took part in the 1st Metal Sculpture Biennale in Warsaw (1968). His sculptural works often addressed spatial transformation and material experimentation. An important aspect of his oeuvre was medal making and drawing. His works are held in the collections of the National Museums in Warsaw, Poznań, and Kraków, the Museum of Art in Łódź, and the Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko.

Anna Jarnuszkiewicz (1935–2021)
She studied painting at the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Wrocław, graduating with honours from E. Geppert’s studio in 1958. Between 1964 and 1972, she worked as a set designer for Polish Television Theatre, designing sets for over 30 performances. She co-authored numerous proposals for monumental sculptures, including those commemorating F. Chopin in London (3rd prize, 1974), the 1956 Poznań protests (1st prize, 1980), the foundation of the Warsaw Mermaid statue in the Old Town Square (1999), and the memorial site for the abduction of Father J. Popiełuszko in Górsk (2000). Medal making was a significant part of her practice – she created around 110 struck and cast medals. Her works are part of collections at the National Museum in Warsaw, the Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko, the Asia and Pacific Museum in Warsaw, the Numismatic Cabinet of the Polish State Mint, and the Museum of Medal Art in Wrocław.