At the end of the Awake and Dream exhibition, inaugurated on 21 May 2009, the Signum Foundation presents a sort of a Post Scriptum in the form of documentation by Michal Martychowiec.
The artist took part in the Awake and Dream, presenting the Destination: The Magic Mountain series.
A new series, Awake and Dream. Documentation. was created on request of the foundation during artist’s studio stay in Palazzo Donà in June 2009. It is a visual history of the Palazzo and its recent transformation from a private estate into an amazing exhibition space: not a museum, but rather a space inhabited by art, where guests are welcome, even in the kitchen.
The documentation by Michal Martychowiec is a hommage to Palazzo Donà in attempt to rediscover the place as a treasure hidden in the shadow and light of Venice. The photographer seems to be slightly intimidated (or enchanted) as if the monumental door of the Gothic palace never completely revealed the interior. The close-up images, a bit unclear and indecisive, composed of fragments and cuts of the exhibited objects and spaces, seem to be documenting not just an exhibition but a mystery concealed from our eyes.
With Michal Martychowiec's series another thread is added to the multilayered history of Palazzo Donà among traces left by the former owners and the objects of contemporary art dedicated to the concept of desire in its many guises which remains the main subject of the exhibition Awake and Dream. The place, the people, and the objects become yet other narrative elements of an unfolding story within a story.
The thirty nine photographs and four films of Awake and Dream. Documentation by Michal Martychowiec are included in the exhibition itself. This unusual documentation appears as an ongoing attempt of the photographer to challenge every passing moment by evoking infinity. The viewers are invited to participate in an unusual treasure hunt in order to discover the artist's physical and metaphorical intervention in the original outline of Awake and Dream.