Instytut Historii Sztuki <Posen> [Hrsg.]: Artium Quaestiones (27.2016)

174

IVAN GERÄT, MARIAN ZERVAN

During three years of unprotected exposure of the carved work, the
statues will have been exposed to an extreme environment and weather.
Part of the aim of the artist is to allow natural forces to penetrate his
work, so that its form is changed temporarily (as in the case of changing
light conditions during the day), or permanently (for example by weath-
ering of the surface). In relation to the physical form of individual arte-
facts, the question arises: what will happen, to the five wooden statues
when positioned within various mountain ranges? Will they freeze, rot or
weather? The artist selected unstained lime wood as his material which
naturally succumbs to the influence of the environment more quickly
than other woods do. At present it is impossible to exclude the possibility
that the artist’s aim may be the complete disintegration of the wooden
statues in the natural environment. This text originated at the time of
the origin of the Citizens group of sculptures. The decisions the artist will
take, or less probably not take, should determine the form and method of
survival or disintegration of his creation, which he is still shaping or par-
ticipating in shaping. Some questions have not been solved yet, so that
we can express only qualified pre-conditions, not factual statements.


3. Stefan Papco, Miroslav in situ, detail of the sculptural group
Citizens, 2015. Photo: archive of the author

It is possible that in a certain phase of their existence, the statues
will acquire such an attractive form that the artist will decide to present
them in a different way. In relation to the gallery’s real possibilities to
exhibit a work for a limited time, as well as the confined possibilities of
the viewer to systematically follow the gradual changes to the statues,
the decision on how to show the viewer the changes caused by weather
and environment is a matter for the artist. The decision between the two