2015

As part of the “mobile” exhibition, between 28 May and 3 June 2015, we presented 10 works from the Rusz Gallery (Joanna Górska i Rafał Góralski) in selected towns and cities of our voivodeship (Toruń, Włocławek, Rypin, Kowalewo Pomorskie, Sępólno Krajeńskie, Więcbork, Ciechocinek, Chełmża, Kowal, Aleksandrów Kujawski). The works were presented by means of mobile billboards that are usually used to show advertisements. It was an unusual travelling exhibition of thought- and reflection-provoking pictures.

“I Like Being Here” is the advertising slogan of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship and the starting point for the artists from the Rusz Gallery, who reflect on the positive potential lying within the contemporary reality, within the place we live in and within the people we meet. The phrase I LIKE means involvement and positive energy, which are so important in the reality we live in. The word LIKE has been taken over and appropriated by Facebook. In the superficial and provisional “world” of Facebook liking costs nothing. Using Facebook, we misspend this positive energy because we like everything indiscriminately. We got used to the fact that our senseless liking makes a nonsense of the word LIKE. In reality, liking something truly requires a lot of effort.

By means of the mobile exhibition, we induced the inhabitants of the region to like themselves and the place they live in. To truly get involved in actions aiming at improving themselves, their relationships with other people and their environment. The mobile exhibition began on 29 May 2015, in front of the Marshall Office in Toruń and then it visited selected towns and cities of our region.

The exhibition was accompanied by the artistic action entitled “Why Are We Here?”, which took place in Toruń, Rypin, Kowal, Kowalewo Pomorskie, Więcbork and Sępólno Krajeńskie. The participants were supposed to answer the question “Why am I here?” in maximum three words. They wrote their answers on a mobile billboard. Then they were presented along with the mobile exhibition. A total of over 500 people participated in the actions. The answers were very different. The children’s most frequent responses were: to play, to play football, to love, to spend time with my family and friends. The adults answered they were there to live, to have family, to make their dreams come true, to enjoy their lives, to develop themselves, to create, to make other people happy, to change the world, etc.

The event was co-financed from the European Regional Development Fund under the Regional Operational Programme of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship for 2007-2013 and the Kuyavian-Pomeranian budget.