Before and After Arrive as One

Agnieszka Brzeżańska

21.03—7.06.2026
Opening: Fri 20.03.2026, 18:00

Vocal: Kaja Prusinowska
Curator: Romuald Demidenko

BGSW / Baszta

al. F. Nullo 8, Słupsk

Agnieszka Brzeżańska’s exhibition brings together paintings, sculptures and objects executed by the artist in various techniques and scales – from small ceramics and the artist’s own herbarium, to large-format fabrics and her latest paintings suggestive of riverside landscapes, to video and sound pieces.

Brzeżańska has been incorporating herbal themes into her work for years, exploring the role of plants in culture. She is an advocate of interspecies alliances – relationships that rely on deep interdependence and reciprocity, embracing all beings and entities. The artist also draws on tradition, matriarchal branches of knowledge, intuition and spirituality.

Among the works on display there is an immaterial aromatherapeutic object – the subtle scent of mugwort (Latin name: Artemisia vulgaris), its extract being released by a sculpture situated near the entrance to the exhibition and turning the viewing of the show into a multi-sensory experience.

The story related by the artist through her works becomes a manifesto of fond attention to the surroundings which use plants to give friendly signs to people, encouraging them to make the effort to understand the variability of environmental processes.

The exhibition’s title alludes to the concept of non-linear time. The artist sees distant eras in the history of Earth and humanity as coexisting and interpenetrating entities. Drawing on herbalism, cosmology, ancient cognitive systems and contemporary artistic tools, Agnieszka Brzeżańska reveals the deep connection between what has slid into oblivion and what is yet to come. She suggests that the world should be viewed as a nexus of processes that involve apparent opposites, such as nature and culture, knowledge and intuition, which are not mutually exclusive but coexisting.

Herbarium Slupensis provides a local point of reference for the show. It is the largest botanical collection in Central Pomerania featuring, among others, the flora of Polish seaports, many extinct and endangered plants, as well as Georg Gotthilf Homann’s (1774—1851) herbarium of poisonous native plants.

The exhibition is a continuation of the plant studies conducted by Brzeżańska and presented in the form of an intervention titled On herbs, trees and lichen at the Museum of Pharmacy — a branch of the Museum of Warsaw (November 2024—March 2025).

To be heard singing at the opening event will be another artist — Kaja Prusinowska. Her voice is going to fill one of the exhibition spaces throughout the duration of the show.

The exhibition is accompanied by an exhibition guide available at the gallery and an essay specially written by poet and botanist Urszula Zajączkowska, to be published on the website www.bgsw.pl (June 2026).

Parallel to the exhibition at the Tower, BGSW / Podgrodzie (-> Partyzantów 31a, Słupsk) will host the Podgrodzie Community Garden cycle, a public programme centred on plants and gardening. Among the artists invited to take part are Julia Ciunowicz, a socially and environmentally engaged creator, the art duo Marleen Boschen & Charles Pryor, the Prague-based collective StonyTellers and Paula Malinowska from Slovakia.

Events:

Sat 21.03, 14:00
Back to the Garden / Powrót do ogrodu
— Julia Ciunowicz and Prof. Zbigniew Sobisz (Herbarium Slupensis)

Thu 14.05, 17:00
About Fireweed, Flame, and Stalked Bonfire Cup / O ogniowym zielu, płomieniu i palenisku
— game with the StonyTellers collective

Sat 6.06, 14:00
How Did Daphne Turn Into a Plant? / Jak Dafne zamieniła się w roślinę?
— Paula Malinowska

Curatorial collaboration: Tomek Pawłowski-Jarmołajew & the BGSW Team
Graphic design: Anna Wacławek

Agnieszka Brzeżańska (b. 1972 in Gdańsk) is active in painting, drawing, photography, film and ceramics. Alchemy, parapsychology, esoterics, indigenous knowledge and matriarchal traditions are but a few selected areas investigated by the artist. She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (1995–1997), the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk (1992–1995) and the Tokyo Geidai (1998–2001). Received grants from the Japanese government (1998–2001, Tokio), DAAD (Berlin, 2008–2009), Büchsenhausen (Innsbruck, 2005), Collegium Helveticum (Zurich/ETH, 2004). Brzeżańska has completed a vocational course run by the Instytut Zielarstwa Polskiego i Terapii Naturalnych (Institute of Polish Herbalism and Natural Therapies).

Her works have been presented at numerous solo exhibitions in Poland and abroad, including: On herbs, trees and lichen (Museum of Pharmacy, branch of the Museum of Warsaw (2024–2025), World National Park (Xawery Dunikowski Museum of Sculpture in Królikarnia, branch of the National Museum in Warsaw, 2019–2020; Gdańsk City Gallery, 2018), Matrix-Sratrix (Kasia Michalski, Warsaw, 2016), Ma Terra (Vera Munro, Hamburg, 2015–2016), This all occurs quickly, with ease, grace and joy (Marlborough Contemporary, London, 2015), Ziemia rodzinna / Ma terra (Wrocław Contemporary Museum, 2014), Kobayashi Maru (Nanzuka, Tokyo, 2014; Bonniers Konsthal, 2019), A Painting Cycle (Nomas Foundation, Rome, 2012); Back to the Garden (Galerie Kamm, Berlin, 2012); Cosmic Equation (Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel, 2010). Her pieces were also displayed at the 2018 Berlin Biennale.

She has received many awards, for instance from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage in Visual Arts (2024) and the ING Polish Art Foundation (2018). She lives and works in Warsaw.

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