installation for “The Incarnation of the Deer” exhibition (2019), the National Museum of Ethnography, Warsaw. Co-curating and scenography. More photos here.
From cave paintings to grandma’s sideboard, from ancient myths to contemporary apartments – hoofed animals are everywhere! The deer – magical, mythical, prestigious, kitschy, glitter, pink, simply – the cult deer is the protagonist of „The Many Incarnations of Deer”. Perhaps no other animal has been so loved in the common imagination, and yet so controversial. The image of deer keeps reappearing in culture in many forms – from the oldest traces in mythology, the lore of fairytale and legend, through the time of infamy, when it was treated as a symbol of kitsch, until the present day and the victorious return of deer as an ironic, subversive decoration. We will examine the variety of images of deer in culture and its tumultuous career. It will be represented by vernacular art, 19th century petit-bourgeois interior decorations and its later folk echoes – figurines, paintings, handmade tapestries, contemporary home, and garden decor, design and illustration.
Text and translation: Olga Drenda (curator), co-curator and scenography: Mirella von Chrupek, graphic design: Julia Mirny