Datament

da ta ment / noun.
An infinite amount of known, unknown, measurable and unmeasurable data that belongs to a person, a group or a thing.
The state of data at a given point in time.
The tangible impact of data on life. 
Data as establishment.

We are all made of data. Digitized information has become our main point of contact with reality and, in many instances, reality itself. The Datament exhibition illustrates the human relationship with data and how it is processed. The neologism of the title identifies data as the establishment, highlighting its tangible but rarely questioned impact on life. Datament manifests itself by filling the cognitive void with presumed knowledge.

The sculpture presented in the Polish Pavilion consists of four wireframe models made of steel, taken directly from the digital environment. It represents algorithmically generated statistical homes from Hong Kong, Poland, Mexico, and Malawi. Each model is divided into four rooms, according to their function.

Although the image of the world based on statistical data is unreliable, the authority of its source makes it seem trustworthy. Using the language of architecture, the installation in the pavilion allows us to grapple with this problem through physical experience.

The massive scale of accumulated data requires us to establish an entirely new relationship with it. This will enable us to capture and minimize the errors it contains, especially those resulting from the incompatibility of the human perspective with the logic of the algorithm.

“We share a world with data. Believing in their infallibility, we let algorithms calculate and design our houses and cities. However, without a sensitive and conscious designer, digitally processed data can create distorted solutions, such as those presented in the Polish Pavilion,” say the creators of the installation—artist Anna Barlik, architect Marcin Strzała and curator Jacek Sosnowski. 

Find out more about the exhibition at the labiennale.art.pl and follow us on Instagram. 

Polish Pavilion at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice
Datament: Venice, May 20–November 26, 2023

Exhibitors: Anna Barlik (artist) and Marcin Strzała (architect) / Curator: Jacek Sosnowski / Polish Pavilion commissioner: Janusz S. Janowski, Zachęta—National Gallery of Art / Polish Pavilion office: Michał Kubiak, Joanna Waśko / Organiser: Zachęta—National Gallery of Art.

Polish participation at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale was made possible through the financial support of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland.

Patron: ORLEN / Exhibition partners: Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Collection dela.art / Collaboration: Polish Institute in Rome.

Biographical notes
Anna Barlik, a visual artist, she uses sculpture, site-specific installations, drawing and composition to explore the relationship between people and the reality that surrounds them. Using simple forms, mostly made of powder-coated steel, she enters an existing space, highlighting the tensions and social problems within it. She draws from individual stories, which she tells using planes, lines, and colours. In 2017, she received her Doctorate in art from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. She has completed artistic residencies in Finland and Iceland. She is a lecturer at the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology, where she teaches composition and visual structures and runs a sculpture studio.

Jacek Sosnowski, a curator and psychoanalyst, he specializes in contemporary art, focusing on issues related to imagined social structures, identity or transformation through trauma, and the healing process. He is a designer of exhibitions, public space projects, and art-branding strategies, and a founder and manager of PRPGND (formerly Propaganda Gallery), an organisation dedicated to producing and promoting art. He is a co-organizer of the Warsaw Gallery Weekend and a member of Sinthome—The Lacanian School of Psychoanalysis. 

Marcin Strzała, a designer and architect exploring the trans-disciplinary nature of architecture in the digital paradigm, his academic research deals with the processes of digital production and the relationship between data and its physical manifestation in architecture. His teaching seeks to exploit the potential of the synthesis of digital tools with the vernacular trend. He was a lecturer at Monash Art, Design and Architecture in Melbourne and a visiting teacher at Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology in China. He currently teaches at the School of Form of the SWPS University and at the Faculty of Architecture of the Warsaw University of Technology, where he has been involved in the Architecture for Society of Knowledge programme since the beginning of his career.

Info about the organizer
Zachęta—National Gallery of Art in Warsaw, is the organizer of the exhibitions in the Polish Pavilion both for Art and Architecture Exhibitions of La Biennale di Venezia, as well as the custodian of the building. The gallery’s director acts as the pavilion commissioner. Poland has its own exhibition pavilion, which is located in Giardini—one of the two main exhibition venue of the Venice Biennale.

Media contact
For international and Italian press: Lightbox, Teresa Sartore, teresa [​at​] lightboxgroup.net / T (+39) 349 66 09 573
For Polish press: Zachęta—National Gallery of Art, Michał Kubiak, m.kubiak [​at​] zacheta.art.pl / T (+48) 601 69 22 09.

Images: see here.