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Installation view, Mikołaj Sobczak, Moon, Sun, Mercury, 2025. Commissioned and produced by Salzburger Kunstverein and co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, Republic of Poland. Courtesy of the artist. Ph: kunst-dokumentation
Installation view, Mikołaj Sobczak, Moon, Sun, Mercury, 2025. Commissioned and produced by Salzburger Kunstverein and co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, Republic of Poland. Courtesy of the artist. Ph: kunst-dokumentation
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Installation view, Mikołaj Sobczak, Moon, Sun, Mercury, 2025. Commissioned and produced by Salzburger Kunstverein and co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, Republic of Poland. Courtesy of the artist. Ph: kunst-dokumentation
Installation view, Mikołaj Sobczak, Moon, Sun, Mercury, 2025. Commissioned and produced by Salzburger Kunstverein and co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, Republic of Poland. Courtesy of the artist. Ph: kunst-dokumentation
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup:
Installation view, Mikołaj Sobczak, Moon, Sun, Mercury, 2025. Commissioned and produced by Salzburger Kunstverein and co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, Republic of Poland. Courtesy of the artist. Ph: kunst-dokumentation
Installation view, Mikołaj Sobczak, Moon, Sun, Mercury, 2025. Commissioned and produced by Salzburger Kunstverein and co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, Republic of Poland. Courtesy of the artist. Ph: kunst-dokumentation
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Installation view, Mikołaj Sobczak, Ancora, Capitain Petzel, Berlin, 2026. Courtesy the artist and Capitain Petzel. Ph: GRAYSC
Installation view, Mikołaj Sobczak, Ancora, Capitain Petzel, Berlin, 2026. Courtesy the artist and Capitain Petzel. Ph: GRAYSC
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Installation view, Mikołaj Sobczak, Ancora, Capitain Petzel, Berlin, 2026. Courtesy the artist and Capitain Petzel. Ph: GRAYSC
Installation view, Mikołaj Sobczak, Ancora, Capitain Petzel, Berlin, 2026. Courtesy the artist and Capitain Petzel. Ph: GRAYSC
Mikołaj Sobczak
SUN (MAGICAL REALISM), 2025
Acrylic on canvas
Signed and dated verso
200 x 477 cm
78.7 x 187.8 inches
78.7 x 187.8 inches
B-MSOBCZAK-.25-0002
Further images
'Sun (Magical Realism)', a work that confronts the aesthetic and political dimensions of magical realism. Far from an escapist fantasy, magical realism is presented here as a tool of survival...
"Sun (Magical Realism)", a work that confronts the aesthetic and political dimensions of magical realism. Far from an escapist fantasy, magical realism is presented here as a tool of survival in the face of violence and systemic erasure. Sobczak assembles a vivid ensemble: a revolutionary woman drawn from communist propaganda, standing in a posture echoing the Magus of the Tarot; Goethe invoked as a beacon against reactionary romanticism, as Thomas Mann once urged; poisonous plants like mandrake and belladonna, historically employed in rebellion against feudal lords.
In SUN (MAGICAL REALISM) spannt Mikołaj Sobczak einen historischen Bogen von mittelalterlichen Bauernaufständen über die Widerstandsstrategien versklavter Menschen bis hin zu den Machtstrukturen des globalen Kapitalismus. Ausgehend von der Geschichte des versklavten Joe Kilpatrick, der Anfang des 19. Jahrhunderts auf einer amerikanischen Plantage ein Schwarzes Kind adoptierte, verbindet Sobczak historische Formen solidarischen Widerstands mit gegenwärtigen Mechanismen gesellschaftlicher Kontrolle – verkörpert sowohl durch Figuren wie Jeff Bezos als auch durch Medikamente wie Xanax, Ritalin, Concerta oder Adderall, die Aufmerksamkeit, Angst und Leistungsfähigkeit im spätkapitalistischen Alltag regulieren.
In SUN (MAGICAL REALISM) spannt Mikołaj Sobczak einen historischen Bogen von mittelalterlichen Bauernaufständen über die Widerstandsstrategien versklavter Menschen bis hin zu den Machtstrukturen des globalen Kapitalismus. Ausgehend von der Geschichte des versklavten Joe Kilpatrick, der Anfang des 19. Jahrhunderts auf einer amerikanischen Plantage ein Schwarzes Kind adoptierte, verbindet Sobczak historische Formen solidarischen Widerstands mit gegenwärtigen Mechanismen gesellschaftlicher Kontrolle – verkörpert sowohl durch Figuren wie Jeff Bezos als auch durch Medikamente wie Xanax, Ritalin, Concerta oder Adderall, die Aufmerksamkeit, Angst und Leistungsfähigkeit im spätkapitalistischen Alltag regulieren.