It is warm and cosy here. As you stand on the concrete floor, you can feel the warmth of sunlight through the window. There are cables everywhere, but this doesn’t look like a cable store. The Cosy Concrete Cable Store transcends its former factory environment. Through the magic of creation, a mere space has become a wonderland of dreams, ritual, memory and translation. 

voyage to self discovery

At the Cosy Concrete Cable Store vernissage, we are fortunate to take a journey in the company of accomplished composer Izabela Kałduńska. Armed with her violin, the Polish artist overpowers mortal anxieties. Our spiritual voyage continues as it encounters the infinity of the inner and subconscious mind of Nori Blume. Completed through repetition, her mesmerising drawings enable us to increase self-awareness by escorting us to an introspective state of mind.

By the same token, mysterious ideas and floating from the inner psyche are ritually transformed into the paintings of Ziemowit Fincek. The shamanistic painter, stirred by arcane myths and ancient Slavic motifs, reveals influences from the past, present and even the future. In the trance of creation, he instinctively translates uncertainties, hidden far from what’s cognizant.

Take a breath. On our journey through dreamland, we have time for contemplation.

By moving away from the depths of the subconscious, we may find ourselves at the frontier of where the past meets the now. Each of us is affected by the overflowing amount of memories we carry. Rachael McArthur strives to deal with her own past and then let it go. She brings back each prominent flashback by meticulously recreating them in detailed miniature sets. Then, through the magic of the camera and amplification of the written and spoken word, she releases memoirs.

photos by Fanni Papp for PK

In a similar vein, when the voice comes from a subject and object, we meet Matilde Søes Rasmussen. Model, writer, photographer. Artist. She allows us to enter the compound world of the beauty industry where the system of exchanging bodies in a capitalistic manner is routine. With the guidance of Matilde’s intimate narrative we become spectators of her experiences compiled and demonstrated in her own movie.

from inner self to cognition

We are not the only ones to be marked by the cachet of the past. Just as we are affected by our surroundings and alterations, so is the landscape. The picture of reshaped terrain and the gapping holes left by open-pit mining which had been transformed into the well-known lakes around Leipzig, leave Fanni Papp with an uncanny feeling. Fanni’s cyanotypes printed on a handmade paper, depicting archival photographs of the region, served as the first stage through the journey to the industrial space of progress. As an extension, we find a projection of her movie on the walls of Cosy Concrete Cable Store. Such a puzzle of installation exposes the scenery and likewise the process of papermaking and cyanotype.

Furthering landscape, we transfer into contemporary enmeshed worlds – digital and physical space. With the curiosity of a current experience and memorizing the present, Molly Burt-Westvig treats landscape as a tool to explore our synchronicity with the world. In her splendid mosaic of shapes and materials whether they be installations of delightful silks, painted canvases or layers under found glass, we can search for translation as we uncover the magnificent process of creation.

Where to next?

At the end of the day, we reach the final destination of our journey. From initiation at an inexplicable subconscious, through unuttered dreams, with a phantom of the past roaming right behind you… We move among the diverse worlds: a prior, a present, a digital. And here we are. Standing amidst the entirety of entanglements which shape our existence. The significance of the moment is about encountering the future path. 

photos by Fanni Papp for PK

Janne Steinhardt couldn’t indicate it better. During her performance she interacts with her labyrinthine sisal twine installation. It is the same for each of us as we interact with our own entanglements. She incarnates a person who comes to a decision. Although the story remains extremely personal, it reveals that we all fight the same battles. Subsequently, it raises questions. Where to go? Shall we take a risk? Shall we risk falling in love? Open yourself up? For Janne the answer is in depth of honesty. I say: spend a minute with the love of your life, than go a million years without knowing what it’s like.

Cosy Concrete Cable Store. A space stuffed with power plugs, drills and concrete. Simultaneously, a wonderland filled with love, lost dreams, peace. The decision belongs to you. Will you take a risk and join us on a voyage to the subliminal? The essence is right there. The price is a soul. All you have to do is just take the step.