Georgia Sagri
Friend of a Friend

The Breeder is pleased to present Georgia Sagri at FOAF 2021, hosted at Raster Gallery.

In the third Warsaw edition of the Friend of a Friend project, Galeria Raster, along with The Breeder from Athens and Sophie Tappeiner from Vienna, is presenting an exhibition confronting the nature of pain and discomfort—in their social, existential and identity dimensions but also the most literal, bodily aspect.

The Breeder presents the work of the Greek artist and activist Georgia Sagri (born 1979). Sagri was one of the initiators of the Occupy New York movement, and her works, combining musical, performative and filmic elements, curatorial practices, installations and texts, have been presented at numerous museums and art institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw. Deep Cut (2018), shown at Raster, is an illusionist, overscaled depiction of a deep, bleeding wound. The festering wound on the gallery wall suits a time of economic and social uncertainty, becoming a dramatic sign of contemporary fears and dangers.

In his latest works, prepared especially for the FOAF show, Oskar Dawicki (born 1971) toys with extreme emotions. In a series of objects titled Pipes, this game takes on a literal but also ambivalent character—gold screws drill through bones in a melodious embrace. Similarly, in the photograph Hungry Gap (for My Mother), the artist directs an encounter between wild animals and the tool of their potential annihilation, as we observe deer sniffing warily at hunters’ rifles. Extreme overcontrol of stimuli is also the theme of the work 71 Sources of Light, in which the artist illuminates an empty corner of the gallery. All of these works function as a sort of performative still life, combining the existential, fatalistic aura typical for Dawicki with a painful diagnosis of our “here and now.”

The Sophie Tappeiner Gallery presents aluminium objects by Irina Lotarevich (born 1991), a Russian artist living and working in New York and Vienna. The objects from the series Storage Box A4 allude to functional design for better organization of space and economization of work, but also include bodily references—enlarged fragments of her skin cast by the artist. The other artist shown by the Vienna gallery as part of FOAF is Kyle Thurman (born 1986, living and working in New York), whose drawings and paintings dialogue with popular depictions of the male body in contemporary culture. Thurman reworks them to reveal non-normative, intimate and surprising forms for envisaging masculinity.

FOAF is based on the idea of sharing exhibition space by the local galleries with their foreign partners. As a result, intriguing juxtapositions of works by Polish and foreign artists are created and new relationships between galleries are established. The aim of the project is to forge a model of contemporary art presentation which would complement art fairs and the effective networking of Polish artists, gallerists and curators. FOAF creates an opportunity for the local audience to experience the works of foreign artists, which, in many cases, have not been exhibited in Poland so far.

In 2021, FOAF will involve six Warsaw-based galleries: LETO, Piktogram, Dawid Radziszewski, Raster, Stereo and Wschód. Following the organisers’ guidelines, the galleries will invite foreign galleries of their choice to cooperate and co-organise contemporary art shows together in Warsaw.

The Friends’ Art Prize will be awarded for the third time this year. It allows for an acquisition of a selected work presented during FOAF Warsaw to the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw. The Prize is funded by Helena Czernecka, a board member of the Friends of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw. In previous editions of FOAF Warsaw the Friends’ Art Prize went to David Flaugher, Shana Moulton and Sean Mullins.

FOAF is organized by Stereo and Wschód galleries and Ewa Borysiewicz. The first edition of the project took place in Warsaw in April 2018. Inviting guests from abroad, including collectors, art critics and curators, is an inseparable part of the event. FOAF is often the first opportunity for them to get acquainted with the artistic scene of the capital city of Poland.

In 2018 and 2019, the editions of FOAF were also held in other European cities: Berlin, Düsseldorf and Prague. The edition of the project prepared for 2020 was cancelled due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Due to the possible travel restrictions, FOAF 2021 will be prepared with attention to the possibilities offered by on-line platforms.