Follow your dream

European Solidarity Centre, Gdansk, 2024

The installation is made up of two clouds of objects, one in the central part of the ECS library, the other by the glass wall overlooking the winter garden. They are neither open books nor birds in flight, but they are certainly snow-white like seagulls.

I gladly accepted the invitation to this project. I had already known ECS, it is a fascinating place. The local library delights with its captivating space. I knew right away that the subject of the work would be discovering new horizons, self-development, searching for challenges and fulfilling dreams. I refer both to books, quite directly, but not literally, and to birds that soar up, group together to fly together to a new place. Maybe they are the ghosts of books? Maybe something escapes us, flies away when we feed only on short information from the Internet or television? Or maybe it is the search for new paths, new trails, new horizons? Books not only give knowledge, but also encourage us to cross our own boundaries, allow us to follow a dream and follow a dream again, as a certain sailor, Joseph Conrad, wrote. My dreams fly, which is even better than just walking.

The opening took place on August 14, 2024, on the occasion of the 10th birthday of ECS. The meeting was honored by a conversation about dreams with psychologist Ewa Woydyłło-Osiatyńska and a performative reading of Italo Calvino’s delicious summer story, The Reader’s Adventure.