Sculptor: Jerzy Kędziora, Poland, Olsztyn near Częstochowa (Photo: Malgorzata Sachse, 18.05.2016)

Jerzy Kędziora a.k.a. JotKa (born 1947 in Częstochowa) is also a medallist and a designer of green and urban areas. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, where from the very beginning he stood in opposition to the artistic canons promoted by the university. His passion for the experiment of kinetic sculptures distinguishes him from other artists of postmodern art, thus placing him among the leading representatives of that period. Jerzy Kędziora is a participant in national and international symposia and festivals, and is currently a teacher at the Jacek Malczewski Art School Complex in Częstochowa.

Kędziora has created a series of sculptures, which have brought him great popularity not only in Poland, but also abroad. The sculptures travelled all over the world and were exhibited at prestigious exhibitions in Miami, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, London, Berlin and Madrid, among others. The artist showed a new direction in sculpture, in which a clever use of the laws of physics and experimentation made the impossible possible, and seemingly heavy and stable forms ephemeral.

For his sculptures, the artist usually uses coloured cold metal: bronze, aluminium. The construction itself is made of glass or carbon fibre. Sometimes, it seems that the figures weigh several tonnes and, suspended on ropes, balance against physics. They are difficult to define unambiguously. Seemingly heavy and stable forms have become, evoking admiration and often also the question: How is this possible? Sculptures suspended freely on ropes, bringing to mind circus art, have already been shown in various parts of the world. The largest scale and fame was achieved by an exhibition presented at the turn of 2008 and 2009 at the International Financial Centre in Dubai (United Arab Emirates).

The artist’s works are recognised by eminent experts and art critics. They are held in the collections of museums and galleries in the country and in Italy, France, Germany, Belgium, the USA, the Vatican, Austria, Bulgaria, and numerous private collectors. For his work he has been honoured with awards of, among others: The Governor of Częstochowa, the President of the City of Częstochowa, the K. Miarki Interregional Award, the Silver Cross of Merit, the Gold Badge of the Sculptors’ Association, the Badge of a Distinguished Cultural Activist, and creative scholarships from the Ministry of Culture and Art. For many years he has worked in the boards of several unions and creative associations. He is an expert of the Ministry of Culture and Art for the evaluation of contemporary art in the field of sculpture. He is a multiple scholarship holder of the Ministry of Culture and Art and currently a member of the World Symposium of Kinetic Sculpture and the Association of Polish Sculptors. For his artistic activities, Jerzy Kędziora received the Honorary Citizenship of Miami in 2015.

(Quelle: http://turystykakulturowa.eu/)

“Life”

Monaco (Photo: Gosia Sachse, 04.05.2012)

Why is a woman’s life less important than the life of a fetus in the 21st century in the heart of Europe?

In memory of 30-year-old Iza from Pszczyna, who died as a result of the ruling of the Constitutional Tribunal in Poland prohibiting abortion of a fetus that had no chance to survive.

“The ring”

Artist: Norbert Radermacher, Potsdamer Brücke, Berlin (Photo: Barbara Stachira, 20.11.2018)

Public art „Der Ring“ (The ring), created in 1985 by the artist Norbert Radermacher. It’s a part of his theme „Stücke für Städte“ (Picies for cities), installed at the Potsdamer Brücke in Berlin-Tiergarten, Germany. The bridge, new built in 1968 and a part of the Potsdamer Straße, is crossing the Landwehrkanal (canal).

(Quelle: Wikipedia)

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A ring can be a sign of wealth, love, but also in a symbolic sense a sign of belonging or a circle formed around something/someone by some objects or people. There are such expressions as Ring of Fire (referring to the seismic and volcanic zone in the Pacific Ocean) associated mainly with natural disasters). The ring also includes refugees on the Polish/Belarusian border, surrounded on one side by Belarusian and on the other by Polish forces. It is on this border that a catastrophe of humanity is taking place, allegedly carried out in our Polish name. I want – in memory of our ancestors, who were once driven out of their safe homes by the turmoil of war or political repression and forced to seek shelter outside the country – to say loudly and clearly: all those who refuse other people in need of basic assistance such as bread, water and a roof over their heads, those who contribute to their death from hypothermia, starvation and disease just near the Polish border – are BARBARISANTS and are not worthy of the name of Poles.

“Dancing girls”

Artist: Ursula Schneider-Schulz, Jena, Germany (Photo: Monika Saczyńska, 20.12.2018)

April 2020. Unknown persons put masks on the faces of figures from the bronze sculpture “Dancing Girls” by artist Ursula Schneider-Schulz from 1961 in the city center. As of Monday (06.04.2020), lip protection in public places has been made mandatory in the city. Art is a mirror of our everyday life.

Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoire of movements, or by its historical period or place of origin.

An important distinction is to be drawn between the contexts of theatrical and participatory dance, although these two categories are not always completely separate; both may have special functions, whether social, ceremonial, competitive, erotic, martial, or sacred/liturgical. Other forms of human movement are sometimes said to have a dance-like quality, including martial arts, gymnastics, cheerleading, figure skating, synchronized swimming, marching bands, and many other forms of athletics.

Archeological evidence for early dance includes 9,000-year-old paintings^{[citation needed]} in India at the Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka, and Egyptian tomb paintings depicting dancing figures, dated c. 3300 BC. It has been proposed that before the invention of written languages, dance was an important part of the oral and performance methods of passing stories down from one generation to the next. The use of dance in ecstatic trance states and healing rituals (as observed today in many contemporary “primitive” cultures, from the Brazilian rainforest to the Kalahari Desert) is thought to have been another early factor in the social development of dance.

References to dance can be found in very early recorded history; Greek dance (horos) is referred to by Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch and Lucian. The Bible and Talmud refer to many events related to dance, and contain over 30 different dance terms. In Chinese pottery as early as the Neolithic period, groups of people are depicted dancing in a line holding hands, and the earliest Chinese word for “dance” is found written in the oracle bones. Dance is further described in the Lüshi Chunqiu. Primitive dance in ancient China was associated with sorcery and shamanic rituals. Greek bronze statuette of a veiled and masked dancer, 3rd–2nd century BC, Alexandria, Egypt

During the first millennium BCE in India, many texts were composed which attempted to codify aspects of daily life. Bharata Muni‘s Natyashastra (literally “the text of dramaturgy”) is one of the earlier texts. It mainly deals with drama, in which dance plays an important part in Indian culture. It categorizes dance into four types–secular, ritual, abstract, and, interpretive- and into four regional varieties. The text elaborates various hand-gestures (mudras) and classifies movements of the various limbs, steps and so on. A strong continuous tradition of dance has since continued in India, through to modern times, where it continues to play a role in culture, ritual, and, notably, the Bollywood entertainment industry. Many other contemporary dance forms can likewise be traced back to historical, traditional, ceremonial, and ethnic dance.

(Quelle: Wikipedia)

“Dron”

Artist: Julita Wójcik, Śląski Park in Chorzów, Poland (Photo: Gosia Sachse, 07.04.2018)

The project called Performance of Freedom, within the framework of which Julita Wójcik designed an interactive multimedia installation entitled “Drone”, is one of the first cultural realizations of the Silesian Park Foundation next to the Coolture Container. The sculpture was placed in 2014 on the traffic circle at the intersection of Aleja Generała Jerzego Ziętka and Aleja Leśna. The current image from the camera is available on the external website.

The DRON is a coamara-shaped sculpture equipped with a camera for online video transmission. It shows how thanks to Internet applications we constantly present what we do and at the same time watch what others do. It illustrates how through the Internet we control and are controlled by the Internet.

DRON is used to watch, peep, observe, monitor and control. DRON is a work of art, which the viewer – observer, is also the object of observation.

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What does “freedom” mean to you?

“The Virtues of Womanhood”

Statue of “St. Cristina”, Lloret de Mar, Spain (Photo: Gosia Sachse, 08.05.2012)

Christina of Bolsena, also known as Christina of Tyre, or in the Eastern Orthodox Church as Christina the Great Martyr, is venerated as a Christianmartyr of the 3rd century. Archaeological excavations of an underground cemetery constructed at her tomb have shown that she was venerated at Bolsena by the fourth century.

The existence of Christina herself is poorly attested. Some versions of her legend place her in Tyre (Phoenicia), other evidence points to Bolsena, an ancient town in central Italy, near an Etruscan site called Volsinium, with catacombs in which archeologists have found the remains of an early Christian church and the tomb of a female martyr. Inscriptions found on the site confirm that this martyr had a name like Christina and that the local community was venerating her as a saint by the end of the fourth century. Some corroborating evidence is provided by a sixth-century mosaic in the basilica of St. Apollinare Nuovo at Ravenna, which includes in its procession of virgins a saint named Christina, wearing a martyr’s crown.

Christina is an early virgin Christian martyr. By the ninth century, an account of her martyrdom was composed, which developed many variants. According to these, she was born either in Tyre (Eastern stories) or in Persia (Western stories) during the 3rd century or 5th century.

She was born into a rich family, and her father was governor of Tyre. By the age of 11 the girl was exceptionally beautiful, and many wanted to marry her. Christina’s father, however, envisioned that his daughter should become a pagan priestess. To this end he placed her in a special dwelling where he had set up many gold and silver idols, and he commanded his daughter to burn incense before them. Two servants attended Christina.Saint Christina giving her father’s idols of gold to the poor, 17th-century painting in the National Museum in WarsawMartyrdom of St Christina San Zanipolo Venice, Italy.

According to accounts, one time Christina was visited by an angel, who instructed her in the true faith. The angel called her a bride of Christ and told her about her future suffering. Christina smashed all the idols in her room and threw them out the window. In visiting his daughter, Christina’s father, Urbanus, asked her where all the idols had disappeared. Christina was silent. Then, having summoned the servants, Urbanus learned the truth from them.

Urbanus had his daughter tortured because of her faith, but God thwarted his efforts on several occasions. The nature of the torture varies with each telling, and can include iron hooks, grilling by fire, placement in a furnace, torture on the wheel, assault by snakes, assailment by arrows, and other assorted methods which she survives. After her father’s death, his successor, Dion, continued to torture her. Christina is eventually beheaded.

(Quelle: Wikipedia)

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“The ‘grounding of girls in the virtues of womanhood’ has historically resulted in unchecked violence against women. They were merely helpless creatures exposed to violence and cruelty, including death. Any opposition or rebellion against the imposed patterns often ended tragically. If someone dreams of returning to the times and patterns of the rightfully past, he is a sadist with complexes, who cannot find his place in the contemporary world. The mere fact of wearing pants does not give absolute power over anyone or anything.

“Airborne”

Artist: Christopher Klein “Airborne”, Munich, Germany (Photo: Agnieszka Zidek, 19.04.2021)

The sculpture is made of high-gloss stainless steel and stands 6.40 m tall. “Airborne” was designed for Linde AG, which moved to new premises here in 2008. The sculpture was manufactured and built by Sandmeir Stahlbau GmbH, Rain am Lech. In 2009 it was placed at the Carl-von-Linde-Haus, Angerhof in Munich. The sculpture represents a newly created molecule.

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A molecule is an electrically neutral group of two or more atoms held together by chemical bonds.^{[4][5][6][7][8]} Molecules are distinguished from ions by their lack of electrical charge.

In quantum physics, organic chemistry, and biochemistry, the distinction from ions is dropped and molecule is often used when referring to polyatomic ions.

In the kinetic theory of gases, the term molecule is often used for any gaseous particle regardless of its composition. This violates the definition that a molecule contain two or more atoms, since the noble gases are individual atoms.^[9]

A molecule may be homonuclear, that is, it consists of atoms of one chemical element, as with two atoms in the oxygen molecule (O₂); or it may be heteronuclear, a chemical compound composed of more than one element, as with water (two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom; H₂O).

Atoms and complexes connected by non-covalent interactions, such as hydrogen bonds or ionic bonds, are typically not considered single molecules.^[10]

Molecules as components of matter are common. They also make up most of the oceans and atmosphere. Most organic substances are molecules. The substances of life are molecules, e.g. proteins, the amino acids they are made of, the nucleic acids (DNA & RNA), sugars, carbohydrates, fats, and vitamins. The nutrient minerals ordinarily are not molecules, e.g. iron sulfate.

However, the majority of familiar solid substances on Earth are not made of molecules. These include all of the minerals that make up the substance of the Earth, soil, dirt, sand, clay, pebbles, rocks, boulders, bedrock, the molten interior, and the core of the Earth. All of these contain many chemical bonds, but are not made of identifiable molecules.

No typical molecule can be defined for salts nor for covalent crystals, although these are often composed of repeating unit cells that extend either in a plane, e.g. graphene; or three-dimensionally e.g. diamond, quartz, sodium chloride. The theme of repeated unit-cellular-structure also holds for most metals which are condensed phases with metallic bonding. Thus solid metals are not made of molecules.

In glasses, which are solids that exist in a vitreous disordered state, the atoms are held together by chemical bonds with no presence of any definable molecule, nor any of the regularity of repeating unit-cellular-structure that characterizes salts, covalent crystals, and metals.

The science of molecules is called molecular chemistry or molecular physics, depending on whether the focus is on chemistry or physics. Molecular chemistry deals with the laws governing the interaction between molecules that results in the formation and breakage of chemical bonds, while molecular physics deals with the laws governing their structure and properties. In practice, however, this distinction is vague. In molecular sciences, a molecule consists of a stable system (bound state) composed of two or more atoms. Polyatomic ions may sometimes be usefully thought of as electrically charged molecules. The term unstable molecule is used for very reactive species, i.e., short-lived assemblies (resonances) of electrons and nuclei, such as radicals, molecular ions, Rydberg molecules, transition states, van der Waals complexes, or systems of colliding atoms as in Bose–Einstein condensate.

(Quelle: Wikipedia)

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The world is made up of molecules, me, you, inhabitants of other continents, non-heteronormative and hetero people, plants and animals. Together we form a coherent whole. By destroying a single piece of this puzzle, you in effect destroy yourself.

June is pride month.

“Dedicated to all deserters and refuseniks”

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Bernau, Germany (Photo: Monika Saczynska, August 2019)

This monument is “dedicated to all deserters and refuseniks, whose home is Mother Earth, who recognize in the enemy the brother of man, who, instead of listening to generals, listen to their conscience, who cling not to ideologies but to life, whose fear is smaller than their love.”

On May 8 was the 76th anniversary of the end of World War II. Let us remember that war, as well as all other fratricidal wars. Let us not allow ourselves to be fooled by any ideologies, by speakers with mouths full of meaningless promises, whose aim is only to confuse neighbor with neighbor, brother with brother, mother with daughter. Let us respect each other. Let’s respect everyone who gives as much as they can every day to make this world a better place for all of us. Every ideology, whatever it may be, stupefies and strips away the dignity of some social group. It is by refusing to think for ourselves and not protesting when someone next to us gets hurt, we contribute to creating hell on earth. Let’s be strong, wise, and supportive to each other!

“Fly”

Prague, Czech Republic (Photo: Peter Georg Kozdon, 20.05.2018)

The housefly (Musca domestica) is a fly of the suborder Cyclorrhapha. It is believed to have evolved in the Cenozoic Era, possibly in the Middle East, and has spread all over the world as a commensal of humans. It is the most common fly species found in houses. Adults are gray to black, with four dark, longitudinal lines on the thorax, slightly hairy bodies, and a single pair of membranous wings. They have red eyes, set farther apart in the slightly larger female.

The female housefly usually mates only once and stores the sperm for later use. She lays batches of about 100 eggs on decaying organic matter such as food waste, carrion, or feces. These soon hatch into legless white larvae, known as maggots. After two to five days of development, these metamorphose into reddish-brown pupae, about 8 millimetres (³⁄₈ inch) long. Adult flies normally live for two to four weeks, but can hibernate during the winter. The adults feed on a variety of liquid or semi-liquid substances, as well as solid materials which have been softened by their saliva. They can carry pathogens on their bodies and in their feces, contaminate food, and contribute to the transfer of food-borne illnesses, while, in numbers, they can be physically annoying. For these reasons, they are considered pests.

In literature

The Impertinent Insect is a group of five fables, sometimes ascribed to Aesop, concerning an insect, in one version a fly, which puffs itself up to seem important. In the Biblical fourth plague of Egypt, flies represent death and decay, while the Philistine god Beelzebub‘s name may mean “lord of the flies”. In Greek mythology, Myiagros was a god who chased away flies during the sacrifices to Zeus and Athena; Zeus sent a fly to bite Pegasus, causing Bellerophon to fall back to Earth when he attempted to ride the winged steed to Mount Olympus. In the traditional Navajo religion, Big Fly is an important spirit being.

William Blake‘s 1794 poem “The Fly”, part of his collection Songs of Experience, deals with the insect’s mortality, subject to uncontrollable circumstances, just like humans. Emily Dickinson‘s 1855 poem “I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died” speaks of flies in the context of death. In William Golding‘s 1954 novel Lord of the Flies, the fly is, however, a symbol of the children involved.

Ogden Nash‘s humorous two-line 1942 poem “God in His wisdom made the fly/And then forgot to tell us why.” indicates the debate about the value of biodiversity, given that even those considered by humans as pests have their place in the world’s ecosystems.

(Quelle: Wikipedia)

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The appearance of insects, including flies, is an inseparable sign of the arrival of warmer days. This year, I think I’m going even to liking flies too, if only it means the end of winter, and the resulting reduction in colds and illnesses caused by viruses

“Torturer”

Bardejov, Słovakia (Photo: Gosia Sachse, 18.08.2017 r.)

Bardejov is a historic small Slovak town, whose square is inscribed on the UNESCO list. It is considered the most beautiful town in Slovakia with rich culture and magnificent architecture. Bardejov is also known as the Hangman’s Town, because, according to legend, there was once an executioner’s school here. Today in the old town we can see a statue of the Hangman, who guards the town and dispenses justice.

They say that the prince who ruled in medieval Bardejov issued a special decree that all dishonesty and thievery would be punished by death. The executioner in Bardejov was a well-known and respected person. It was believed that his authority came from God, in church he sat in a special bench near the altar.

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Nowadays, the word “executioner” has a singular pejorative meaning. For victims of domestic violence in particular, the mere evocation of the image of their executioner in their minds causes various anxiety feelings. In this context the billboard slogan “Love each other mom and dad”, promoted by SYCHAR, which has flooded Polish cities in recent days, sounds like a slap in the face of the victims of domestic violence. The emotional manipulation that has been perpetrated in this billboard action is striking. For years, child psychologists have been making a clear diagnosis: for the proper development of a child, love and a sense of security are essential. These two things cannot be provided by a person who uses violence. It doesn’t matter, if it is a physical, psychological, financial, emotional or any other art of violence. Let us protect ourselves and our youngest children and run away from violent people as far as we can.