Monika Szewczyk

Contemporary European culture seems to drift towards a distancing, and kind of de-sensualization and de-eroticization of the human relation to reality – Juhani Pallasmaa 

Our experience of the material world might be influenced by the tendency to place clearly defined boundaries between nature and culture, body and mind, and the rationalization of every aspect of our lives.

These, in turn, may affect the way we perceive our material world. The word matter becomes a dry, inhuman, and purely intellectual concept, without any psychical significance. This tendency is also apparent in modern architecture. We strive for spaces which are efficient, rational, with clearly defined programs, predictable, and agelessly perfect. They tend to permit too much light and distribute it too evenly, thus weakening the sense of place, intimacy, and secrecy, resulting in an alienating effect, and contributing to the feeling of detachment.

With my project Poetics of Spatial Ambiguity, I want to address these problems by proposing an alternation of the exhibition space. Inspired by the sensuality of the caves, I attempt to express their richness in materiality. At the same time, by bringing new qualities to the space, I want to soften its physical boundaries and make it more ambiguous, creating a more engaging environment where visitors can immerse, get lost and explore their own sensibilities.