SHELTERS, COVERS, SLITS – art about safety, community and survival

In mid-November, three former shelters, located beneath the surface of Wrocław’s Plac Grunwaldzki housing estate and normally inaccessible, will open their doors to visitors. For three days, they will become the venue for an exhibition organised by the Wrocław Institute of Culture entitled ‘SHELTERS, COVERS, SLITS – It’s somewhere further away. Don’t worry. Now closer, even closer’ by Yuriy Biley.

The event is organised by WIK as part of the international Magic Carpets project. The exhibition is curated by Paulina Brelińska-Garsztka, Brigita Bareikytė, Ana Gabelaia and Linda Krumina. The project centres on the artistic interventions of Yuriy Biley, a Ukrainian artist associated with Wrocław, whose work focuses on themes related to the experience of emigration. The main part of the exhibition will be held in a former shelter under the tenement house on Maria Skłodowska-Curie Street, where the artist lives. Biley proposes a concept of adapting it for practical use – combining technical requirements with a concern for sharing resources and creating a common space in case of danger. The project was carried out in collaboration with experts and documented in a film co-created with Piotr Blajerski.

The title of the action refers directly to three places and, at the same time, three types of shelters – namely, shelters, hiding places and crevices. In turn, the lines borrowed from Antoni Smoliński’s poem Alarm, ‘It’s somewhere further away, don’t worry. And now closer, even closer,’ draw attention to carefully getting to know and finding oneself in the situation that surrounds us.

Biley’s new exhibition is a reflection on current social and political events, while also presenting the works he has created during his decade of living in Poland. His work is based on personal experiences, which he constructs through borrowings and quotations, creating installations, videos, collages and post-artistic works.

‘This autumn, with Yuri Biley’s exhibition, we are going out into the city for the first time in the history of Magic Carpets. I am very happy that, as an urban cultural institution, we have the opportunity to organise an event with such an important and topical theme,’ says Dominika Kawalerowicz, director of the Wrocław Institute of Culture.

Magic Carpets is an international network of artist residencies, bringing together 17 organisations from across Europe. Its aim is to support young artists and curators and to involve local communities in the artistic life of the city. The Wrocław Institute of Culture has been part of this platform since 2022.

The exhibition will be open to visitors from 14 to 16 November from 11:00 to 18:00. As part of the event, participants will have the opportunity to take part in guided tours in both Polish and English. The full programme of the event will be available in the coming days on the Wrocław Institute of Culture’s information channels.

The event is organised by the Wrocław Institute of Culture as part of the MagiC Carpets platform, co-financed by the Creative Europe programme. The partners of the event are Ładne Historie Foundation and Wroclaw Medical University.