EXHIBITION | “Incantations” / Mateusz Gromadzki

Until May 10, 2026, OP ENHEIM is hosting an exhibition by Mateusz Gromadzki, the winner of the Grand Prix OP_YOUNG #5. The presented exhibition is one of the prizes awarded to the artist.

Curator: 𝐏𝐚𝐮𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐚 𝐁𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧́𝐬𝐤𝐚-𝐆𝐚𝐫𝐬𝐳𝐭𝐤𝐚
▪️Where: Galeria OP ENHEIM, Plac Solny 4, Wrocław
▪️Exhibition dates: 13.03-10.05.2026

The exhibition Incantations arises from the artist’s personal biography, mobilised as an analytical instrument for articulating the broader condition of the contemporary subject functioning in a state of permanent tension. Drawing on magical and folk practices as a living reservoir of survival strategies, the artist situates his work as a form of intimate ritual, deeply embedded in artistic practice. The exhibition space itself functions as an incantation: a repetitive gesture aimed at influencing reality, even when its efficacy remains neither immediate nor measurable.

It is precisely within this awareness of powerlessness, coupled with the persistent necessity for action, that the exhibition’s atmosphere emerges. Composed of objects produced through the artist’s own technological processes, the works acquire the status of autonomous entities, formed from both living fragments and residual remains. In this way, art opens up a protected space for confronting the repressed. As the artist emphasises, this gesture constitutes a descent into a mental crypt in which fear, fatigue and helplessness accumulate, yet where the latent possibility of reanimation still endures.

Underlying this narrative is the experience of collective repression, interwoven with a pervasive sense of impotence. The artist invokes the image of an iceberg surfacing and coming to a standstill, while time is marked by the monotonous cadence of falling drops. This metaphor articulates a condition of suspension in which awareness of crisis does not precipitate action, but instead imposes a chronic burden upon both body and psyche. The eco-magical strategies present in the works do not aim to aestheticise catastrophe nor to “laugh through tears”; rather, they constitute an attempt to recover breath within a world devoid of simple resolutions. The transposition of magical practices into the field of contemporary art is thus framed as a gesture of self-reassurance. The artist is aware that these actions do not directly translate into reality and that their operative force resides primarily within the emotional sphere. The eponymous incantation therefore functions simultaneously as an act of enchantment and disenchantment of reality.

A central theme of the exhibition concerns the question of restoring balance. The artist investigates the area between body and mind, as well as our overburdened, shared everyday life. Incantations suggests an expanded understanding of well-being: not as an individual condition, but as one produced through interdependence. Within the exhibition, the encounter with matter – plant, animal and mineral – becomes both a measure of civilisational maturity and a speculative inquiry into the future of the species.

Through this exhibition, the artist addresses the audience with a question: Do we still speak about spirituality and ritual in the same way as previous generations understood them?

Paulina Brelińska-Garsztka

OP_YOUNG is a mentorship program aimed at young artists from Lower Silesia, organized by OP ENHEIM since 2020. Its goal is to support and activate the local art scene.

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▪️Mateusz Gromadzki – transmedia artist, posthumanist, dark ecologist, and nomad. Born in 1996 in Olsztyn, he is a graduate of the Faculty of Painting and Drawing at the Magdalena Abakanowicz University of the Arts in Poznań. Other forces that have shaped his early artistic development include nature, rural artists, outsiders, and the aesthetics of Eastern cultures. He is a scholarship holder of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage under the “Młoda Polska 2025” program. He experiments with drawing, imagery, object-based practices, performativity, and occasionally digital media.

He observes Zoe and Bios, searching in them for mystical mysteries and their entanglements with the world of scientific knowledge. He is interested in the phenomenon of “memory carriers” — collecting non-human artifacts and materials from non-human worlds. He cultivates his own organic materials, intertwining their existence with works of art. He conducts artistic field research using sensory anthropology, interwoven with post-artistic practice. He explores the regenerative potential of fairy tales and myth, as well as contact with plants and naturally derived materials. He considers empathy and metaphor as tools for understanding the mysteries of reality.

He has presented his work, among others, at the International Contemporary Sculpture Symposium – 2024 Nature of Matter – Matter of Nature at the Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko.