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Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Mikołaj Sobczak, Meeting Ancestors While Being On PrEP, 2023

Mikołaj Sobczak

Meeting Ancestors While Being On PrEP, 2023
Oil, collage on wood and glass
Signed, dated and titled verso
87.5 x 22.5 cm
34.5 x 8.9 inches

Collection The Perimeter, London
B-MSOBCZAK-.24-0010
Painted on the door of an antique clock found on the streets of Paris, the work refers to an illustration for Adam Mickiewicz's Romantic poem 'Dziady', the plot of which revolves...
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Painted on the door of an antique clock found on the streets of Paris, the work refers to an illustration for Adam Mickiewicz's Romantic poem 'Dziady', the plot of which revolves around an ancient Slavic ritual feast that takes place on the last day of October to commemorate the dead and summon ancestors from the eternal realm. The scene depicted, Sobczak’s interpretation of the poem, portrays the spirit of an ancestor entering a house. Also visible is the artist’s self-portrait behind glass, representing a state of entrapment within the material world as a passive observer of the spiritual world.

Pieces of packaging from the HIV prevention medication known as PrEP have also been applied to the wooden door, along with an actual pill. The work is heavily inspired by conversations with Dale Harding, an Australian artist descended from the Bidjara, Ghungalu, and Garingbal peoples, with whom Sobczak spent time at the Cité des Arts residency in Paris. The two artists discussed their experiences with taking PrEP, their ancestry, and the history of HIV/AIDS activism, sharing a sense of gratitude.

In the lower part of the composition is the image of a character that Polish film historian Joanna Ostrowska had been researching and sent to Sobczak. The character, a woman named Agnieszka, had started appearing in the artist's dreams.
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