Alicja Kwade | Hypothetical Reality

'My muse is the blank space, the not-knowing and not-understanding. I attempt to acknowledge nothingness as real. If nothing is real, there are only possibilities.'–Alicja Kwade

'If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.' said René Descartes, a famous French philosopher. For more thousands of years, people have been trying to measure or limitedly interpret the reality through all the methods and concepts they knew. Alicja Kwade, an artist from Poland, conducts relevant research again and doubts the structure of modern society, reflecting our perception of time and space in daily life. By creating sculptures that look like illusions, she reinterprets our concepts for time, space and matters in mathematical, scientific and philosophical ways. Her works often consist of reflective and repetitive volumes. These elements are used for creating immersive space that encourages visitors to think about the boundary of reality and illusion in their minds.

Kwade was born in Poland in 1979. She moved to West Germany with her family later and graduated from the Berlin University of the Arts in 2005. Currently, she lives and works in Berlin. Her most famous work is the large-scale sculpture named WeltenLinie, which was shown in 57th Venice Biennale 2017. Two-way mirrors and pairs of objects intentionally placed were used to compose the installation. When visitors walk through its steel structure, the objects in it will jump out from the framework of reality and move to the framework of the work while being observed in different angles of view, which may be a revolution to the way visitors adopt for reading and understanding the objects contained in the work. In 2019, Kwade's works have also been exhibited at the Roof Garden of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and in Setouchi Triennale 2019. They are now collected by some renowned art museums, including Centre Pompidou, Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Boros Collection / Bunker Berlin.