Projekt Szpilki. Księga / Kobiety z kręgu Schulza

The “High Heels” project is an interdisciplinary and intermedia action of an international range. It has been inspired by the graphic art of Bruno Schulz and a Ph.D. dissertation, Schulz’s Women [Kobiety z kręgu Schulza], completed by the artist at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Contemporary women gave the artist shoes with a history, contributing to a growing collection. Having received them as an element of the profane and breaking its barrier, she created them again and placed them in the sphere of the sacred. The transformed shoe-object became a symbol of duration. Deciding to donate her shoes, each woman answered questions which were used to create a language of pictorial signs and QR codes. Using them, as well as some traditional painting techniques, the artist left traces on the shoe-objects. The spectator, in interaction with the work, makes his or her decision to get involved, in part or in full, in the process of decoding the encoded meanings. The language of pictograms helps to decode the information about the donor’s appearance, while the QR code allows one to establish a more profound interaction with the works by an application in a mobile phone – it reveals the woman’s identity and spirituality as well as her name. The other project, Schulz’s Women, realized at the same time, refers to the spiritual identity of the writer and pertains to women with whom he shared his thoughts and ideas. Two years ago Anna Kaszuba-Dębska started collecting graphic material in the archives. At first, she wanted to show the women from the past through authentic footing, but with time she found some traces which apparently had nothing to do with Schulz. A good example is Joanna Suchestow, Duke Radziwill’s fiancé. The artist has proved that a figure from the drawings of the teacher from Drohobych was his close relative. Thanks to other artists invited to participate in the project, it has achieved a higher, international and intercultural range. All the texts are available on a website www.projektszpilki.pl.