Mariusz Wilczyński. Sometimes I long for a city that no longer exists… | exhibition vernissage

The exhibition at the Olimpus Gallery is an attempt to depict the landscape of Łódź in the second half of the 20th century through the drawings of Mariusz Wilczyński. We will be taken on a nostalgic journey through a city that exists in the collective memory through works created during the making of the film “Kill It and Leave This Town”, as well as pieces that have never been publicly exhibited before.

„Kill It and Leave This Town” is a unique project that Wilczyński has been working on for 14 years. The film, which won the Golden Lion at the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia, is an intensely personal journey into the artist’s past, in which memory merges with imagination and reality with fiction. It resurrects the childhood and youth of the communist era, recalling people who have died and giving them new life on screen. The film is a kind of chronicle, a record of emotions, nostalgia and reflection on the passage of time and the changes in Poland over the decades. It is also an image of Łódź a city that Wilczyński knows intimately and which he portrays with great sensitivity.

This exhibition offers a deeper understanding of Wilczyński’s creative process, revealing his artistic evolution and his extraordinary ability to transform personal experience into universal works of art. Each drawing, each scene, is a fragment of his life, a record of emotions that become a bridge between the past and the present, between memories and modern times. It is also an opportunity to discover the intimate world of an artist for whom art is a form of therapy, a dialogue with the past and a homage to those who have influenced his life and work.

Bio

Mariusz Wilczyński (b. 1960) – painter, performer, director of animated films and music videos. His artistic career began with studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź, where he was educated under the eye of Prof. Stanisław Fijałkowski and Prof. Andrzej Marian Bartczak. He learned animation on his own, which in time led him to create a unique, recognisable style. Over the years, Wilczyński has gained experience and recognition with his animated videos, and his work has been presented at numerous international exhibitions and festivals, including in London, Sofia, Amsterdam, Madrid and Chicago.

Photo courtesy of PWSFTviT in Łódź