Joanna Rajkowska

How can a museum present the experience of public events, and the objects used in them, in an institutional context? (see: conceptual edifices) A noteworthy case is the life and afterlife of the objects used by Joanna Rajkowska during her Dotleniacz (Oxygenator) project. The object here is a device for ozonizing the air surrounding a man-made pond. It was both a concealed, technical element of the project – an ordinary machine – as well as its essence: It was the key mechanism for the entire process of oxygenation. The object constitutes a remainder, a relic of a project that existed in a specific public space for a limited period of time. Reduced to a mechanical device, itremains both a functional object (as opposed to a prototype or a symbol), and an artistic device (see: 1:1 scale), sustaining its aura as a part of a renowned art project (see: coefficient of art).

www.rajkowska.com

The report presented in exhibition consists of an oxygenator loaned to the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw for the duration of exhibition. Courtesy Centre for Contemporary Art – Ujazdowski Castle.