Fetish and Metabolism
Curatorial Tour in English of The International Exhibition of Leather Forms
Tomek Pawłowski-Jarmołajew
06.09.2026
12:00
BGSW / Ustka
We invite you to a curatorial tour with Tomek Pawłowski-Jarmołajew through one of the chapters of the International Exhibition of Leather Forms.
The exhibition takes as its starting point the works of artists who participated in the leather-form workshops in Krzynia (Ogólnopolski Eksperymentalny Plener Graficzny „Zapis graficzny w skórze”, 1977–1989), co-organised by BWA in Słupsk and the Słupsk District of the Polish Artists’ Association (ZPAP), with the support of the Northern Leather Industry Works “Alka” and the tannery in Dębnica Kaszubska.
Fetish and Metabolism is a particular kind of imagined continuation of the leather-form workshops organised in Krzynia in the 1970s and 1980s. The works selected for this section of the exhibition are mostly by contemporary artists. In contrast to the historical works, which focused primarily on formal experimentation, contemporary artistic practices draw attention to the ethical implications of animal-derived matter, questioning the exploitation of bodies and the speciesism embedded in the use of leather as an artistic material.
The artists invited to participate in the exhibition work with a range of materials and artistic strategies, evoking associations with the corporeal while simultaneously attempting to move beyond an anthropocentric perspective.
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