Endless

Our civilisation is built on an endless cycle of consuming, collecting and discarding. Endless, Julita Wójcik’s new exhibition, is a story of excess – but also of reclamation, revival of traditional craft and collaboration. Departing from the conventions of a traditional exhibition, this project unfolds as a living presentation of collective activity. Wójcik will lead an unusual workshop and choreograph a performance in which participants themselves become part of the process: acting as the moving parts of a giant human loom.

Over the course of the exhibition, a “living manufacture” will emerge, reviving the historical notion of collective, manual production of textiles. Etymologically, manufacture comes from the Latin manus (hand) and factura (making), pointing to the very essence of craftsmanship: the act of making by hand. Archaeological evidence suggests that that textile weaving dates back as far as 7000 BC. Over time, small handlooms gave way to factory machines. In Wójcik’s project, the tradition of textile craft and human cooperation takes centre stage once more. A group of participants will become a functioning workshop, literally embodying the structure of a loom – some as warp, some as weft, and one solo performer darting there and back as the shuttle.

The materials used in this large-scale weaving will include long-forgotten bedsheets, faded curtains, worn tablecloths, offcuts from home dressmaking, and bolts of outdated Finnish camouflage. Wójcik offers these remnants a second life, proposing a form of creative recycling reminiscent of the rag rugs woven by our grandmothers. The resulting tapestry – a vibrant, abstract collage of colours and patterns – is also a weaving of memories, as most of the fabrics have been donated or inherited from parents, grandparents or friends. The final piece, a monumental carpet, is to become a fusion of these shared stories, where each contributor may recognise threads of their own past. This fleeting recycling of excessive possessions and inherited relics will be staged within Gdańsk City Gallery.

Wójcik makes no promises that the collective creation will endure as a permanent exhibit. After the exhibition, it may undergo further transformation. However, as previous iterations of her work reveal, such pieces often find surprising afterlives. The first of these projects, created during a workshop accompanying the exhibition The Splendour of Textiles in 2013 at Warsaw’s Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, ultimately entered the collection of the Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź. Another piece, a carpet made in 2019 during workshops in Bräkne-Hoby, Ronneby and Sölvesborg – towns in southern Sweden known for their enduring weaving traditions – found its home at the Region Blekinge Culture Department in Karlskrona. A third piece, created during the 2024 Brådjupa dance festival in Karlshamn, is on view at the Kulturcentrum Ronneby Konsthall.

At Gdańsk City Gallery, Endless reaffirms a trademark element of Wójcik’s artistic practice: a strong emphasis on shared labour. Much like her iconic 2001 performance Peeling Potatoes at the Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, this will not be a display of finished works. Instead, the exhibition will focus on a community and a shared act of creation. What is exhibited, ultimately, is the fleeting encounter of a group of people and their temporary collaboration.

Julita Wójcik graduated from the Faculty of Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk in 1997. Her diploma work was supervised by Professor Franciszek Duszeńko, who is commemorated nationally as one of the 2025 culture patrons in the year marking the centenary of his birth. Duszeńko developed his monumental works in situ with large teams of collaborators. He spent a year in Treblinka while creating the Memorial to the Victims of the Extermination Camp. This exhibition serves as a tribute to his legacy, as Wójcik will collaborate with a broad group of participants to create a single, vibrant object.