21 November 2024 - 2 March 2025
12 PLN / 8 PLN, free admission on Thursday

Agnieszka Brzeżańska. On herbs, trees and lichen

The exhibition titled On herbs, trees and lichen at the Museum of Pharmacy is a unique presentation of works by the recognized artist Agnieszka Brzeżańska. Contemporary art has been meticulously integrated into the gaps of furniture of the reconstructed drugstore from the 1920s. Within the space of the smallest branch of the Museum of Warsaw, Brzeżańska’s works gain new, unexpected contexts, accompanying the main exhibition Res pharmaceuticae devoted to the history of drugs and pharmacy. The artist invites the visitors to a unique journey through herbal medicine – the relation between pharmacy and phytotherapy and the forgotten narration about the healthy properties of plants. Visitors will have the opportunity to see visual works such as pottery, paintings, videos, as well as installations with engaging scents and sounds.

The intriguing title of Agnieszka Brzeżańska’s exhibition is inspired by a fragment of a Renaissance botanical work titled Polish herbarium, or Of the Complexion of Various Herbs and Trees, and Other Things of which Medicines Comprise. It was the first original Polish herbarium published in 1595 and written by Marcin of Urzędów, a botanist, herbalist, physician and priest.

Artemisia vulgaris and “thoughtshapes”

Agnieszka Brzeżańska is a painter, performer and herbalist. Her works also cover drawings, photographs, movies and pottery. She often utilizes traditional crafts and techniques. The core of her diversified artistic activity lies in the reflection on the human’s place in the world and the co-existential opportunities of all beings. Plants and herbal medicine are subjects that the artist has been interested in for years. At the Museum of Pharmacy, works by Brzeżańska were given new special contexts and meanings. The beginnings of pharmacy and the relationship between nature and science serve as the foreground of the exhibition On herbs, trees and lichen. When juxtaposed with the history of drugs, a collection of drugstore glass utensils, book collections and traditional Japanese Kanpō, Brzeżańska’s art resonates differently than in a neutral space of a standard gallery.

The exhibition will include works from the last several years as well as three objects prepared specially for the interior of the Museum of Pharmacy and one showpiece that has never been presented before – a herbarium created by Agnieszka Brzeżańska during her studies at the Institute of Herbal Medicine and Natural Therapies. The space of the old drugstore will be filled with the smell of mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) – a common plant that is referred to as the medication for all ailments. The installation stimulates the sense of smell and brings associations with ancient aromatherapy rituals, inhalations and incenses with herbal smoke used in households to protect the inhabitants from illnesses. Visitors will have the chance to see a handmade jacquard, oil paintings, two video workpieces constituting a record of observations of the forces of nature, as well as small ceramic sculptures – the distinguishing mark of the artist. Przodki (Ancestors) are ameba-shaped creatures that the artist calls “thoughtshapes”. The semi-abstract objects are associated with organic forms that have limbs and even face expressions.

Agnieszka Brzeżańska (born in 1972) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk and in Warsaw where she obtained the diploma of the Prof. Stefan Gierowski’s Painting Studio. As part of the scholarship of the Government of Japan, she attended the University of Fine Arts and Music in Tokyo. Her works cover paintings, drawings, photographs, movies, pottery and other media. Brzeżańska utilizes various records of knowledge, from physics and philosophy to cognition systems marginalized by modern science, such as alchemy, parapsychology, esoterics, tribal lore and matriarchal traditions. From 2016, together with Ewa Cieplewska, she has been organizing an artistic project on the Vistula River called Flow/Przepływ. Her works were presented at dozens of individual and collective exhibitions in Poland and abroad. She cooperates with the Warszawa BWA Gallery in Warsaw and the Nanzuka gallery in Tokyo.

More: www.agnieszkabrzezanska.com.

Modern art at the Museum of Pharmacy

The Museum of Pharmacy is the only Polish institution devoted to the history of pharmacy that is open to modern art – in 2021, the Museum was used for the exhibition of Tomasz Kulka titled The fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil prepared in cooperation with Galeria Propaganda as part of the Warsaw Gallery Weekend. A year later, it was used as the venue for the presentation of works by Magda Bielesz titled I feel safe when surrounded by medicines. Agnieszka Brzeżańska’s On herbs, trees and lichen is the next attempt to introduce contemporary art to the historic context of the Museum of Pharmacy.