Mondo cane. World User's Manual

The title of the exhibition - Mondo cane - refers to the volume of poetry by Jerzy Jarniewicz, awarded the Nike Literary Award in 2022, as well as an album by Mike Patton (Faith No More) inspired by Italian music of the 1950s and 1960s, and the Italian documentary from 1962, which arouses numerous controversies.

This documentary is the first one considered mondo (recording real death) and shockumentary (containing shocking materials). It reveals human violence against animals, prejudices against other cultures, justifications for one's own culture and bizarre rituals. The montage of scenes reflects the arbitrariness of assigning value to products and services and the absurdities of existence of the richest. The work can be seen as an attempt to show the world - extra-individual processes and non-obvious connections between phenomena on a global scale. The creators had the ambition to make a change, but from today's perspective it is clear that they duplicated the exclusions. The failures of the film are: intrusive didacticism, a sense of superiority towards the discussed characters, the attitude of an omniscient narrator, emphasis on social norms. The picture needs to be updated in the face of changes in the understanding of man, other species and technology. In times of the escalating climate crisis, deepening economic inequalities, the Russian military invasion of Ukraine or the relocation of the economic centre to Asia, questions of this type are becoming more and more urgent.

As old diagnoses are out of date, presently we are wondering how to show the universe inclusively. How to present a recipe for the future, a more or less serious instruction manual for the world. A way to continue navigating in the depths of complex phenomena, fake news, bots, big data, mass threats and shortsightedness of homo sapiens. The recipe of visual arts is ambiguous, requires effort and commitment, does not guarantee 100% effectiveness and side effects can be unpredictable. Jerzy Jarniewicz created his own "montage" in the volume of poetry, which makes up the contemporary Mondo cane. Artistic “answers” become an instrument for thinking and (co-)feeling. Some of the artistic proposals presented at the exhibition are absurd, fragmentary, others - extremely pessimistic. Instead, they offer imaginative, empathic, engaging solutions, and these are ingredients that other recipes from related areas, such as science and the humanities, often lack.  

by Wiktoria Kozioł

The exhibition "Mondo Cane. World User's Manual" is carried out by the National Museum in Szczecin in cooperation with the Academy of Art in Szczecin. Its curator is Wiktoria Kozioł, and 30 artists - graduates and lecturers of the Faculty of Painting of the Academy of Art in Szczecin will take part in it, as well as students invited to one of the projects and members of the Stobno Country Housewives Circle and the Retirees, Pensioners and Invalids Circle No. 2 in Stobno. Several dozen of presented works include be paintings, drawings, objects, installations and videos, shown not only in the exhibition halls, but also in other spaces of the museum (cloakroom, staircase, guard booth, corridors).

Exhibition Artists: Michał Banasik, Roman Bozejewicz, Piotr Bujak, Jakub Czyszczoń, Wojciech Dada, Inez Dapszus, Barbara Dąbrowska, Jagoda Dukiewicz, Agnieszka Grodzińska, Natalia Janusz-Malewska, Alina Jasiorska, Natalia Karczewska, Marianna Kępka, Jadwiga Kolcz, Adrian Kolerski, Joanna Krawczyk, Paweł Książek, Natalia Laskowska, Olga Lewicka, Teresa Matyja, Aleksandra Mrozowska, Łukasz Musielak, Hanna Nowicka, Grzegorz Nowotniak, Michał Orzechowski, Bartłomiej Otocki, Grażyna Pacyna, Halina Partyka, Piotr Pauk, Przemysław Piniak, Jolanta Resiak, Zbigniew Rogalski, Zbigniew Romańczuk, Daniel Rycharski, Lidia Sapińska, Aneta Sieniawska, Piotr Skiba, Anastazja Stańczyk, Remi Suda, Jolanta Szaruga-Dudek, Katarzyna Szeszycka, Małgorzata Szymankiewicz, Dorota Szynkaruk, Ewa Tenen, Jolanta Trat, Marzena Winiarczyk, Renata Wójcik, Aleksandra Zielińska

The exhibition "Mondo cane. World User's Manual" is accompanied by a series of schoolchildren workshops (run in Polish).

Exhibition: "Mondo Cane. World User's Manual" from March 25th to May 21th 2023
vernissage: March 24th 2023 (Friday), 6.00 P.M. (free admission)
The National Museum in Szczecin – the Museum of Contemporary Art
ul. Staromłyńska 1

Curator: Wiktoria Kozioł
Coordinator: Magdalena Lewoc
Organizers: The National Museum in Szczecin, the Academy of Art in Szczecin

1080x1080 px Mondo cane 1