The Department of Subterranea
Marcin Dudek’s book delves into the captivating universe of a literal and figurative underground, which took form in works he created below and above ground in the past ten years. The Department of Subterranea takes us into the artist’s living space usurped by a parasitic mass of adhesive tape and plastic film (Tunnel Recording), through the illusion of a painting out into a space behind the exhibition (How to Rumble Painting), and into underground mazes constructed from tape, wood or jute fabric (I Will Eat This Sleepy Town, Cathedral of Human Labour, Land of Space and Optimism), out to public space (Winter Pavilion, Pumping Station). It also allows us to revisit composite shows and performances (Too Close for Comfort, Wild, Punch to the Sky), and see a few of Dudek’s unique hand-made books (Coal, Strata) as well as his extensive series of meticulously composed collages (When I Think About Painting, Unexplained Ground Subsidence, 17972 and many others) – unveiling many of Dudeks’s intricate references in its concise project descriptions and an insightful interview.
