Everything about the contemporary is panda

The panda has become a significant symbolic element in Martychowiec’s narrative since 2016. This pro­ject utilises various symbols with emphasis on the panda which functions on several levels and through­out many different areas of human activity: politics, culture, conservation, ecology and then again as a sort of idol.

The panda also symbolises the contemporary man, following Ortega y Gasset: ‘a satisfied little man’.

The panda is the most reappearing element, as it follows modes of existence of the spectator and most importantly pivotal moments of art history, whereas the other elements become interwoven comments on contemporary human conditions. This project is in a very direct discourse to two other bodies of work: The incredulity of St Thomas (where Thomas becomes a somewhat symbol of the spectator) and Josephine (where the rabbit Josephine becomes an existential symbol in opposition to the panda).

The mentioned actors of the projects represent these different modes of existence and they are meant to be understood as symbols. The two symbols operated with in this project are:

1. The panda. A degenerated creature (we want to keep the good times even though they are gone) – following Robert Lifton and Ortega y Gasset.
2. Marcel Duchamp. A 20th-century artist and professional chess player.

This project is about the interconnection between belief (faith) and freedom. The readymade, the choice of the frame made by the artist, and since recently also the spectator, are ideas (in a platonic structural sense) one can reflect upon.

This cycle of photographs consists of stills from a film which has never been made (or as it might be read by history - has been lost). One state­ment of the artist is mixed with statements from historic artists: Marcel Duchamp, Bethan Huws, Kazimir Malevich, Francisco Goya... The stuffed panda from the museum functions as symbols of death, or failure (of pre­serving its own species, of being preserved as a work of art, of the meaning of artists’ words being preserved...).