Miss Dorys and her gang
Weronika Daniluk
Varicose veins can be seen in Warsaw at the gate at 2 Wiejska Street (in close proximity to the Parlimant and Senate bulidings), and at the Chmury club in the installation "Rozchmurz się". What are these funny, pink organisms that "colonize" the walls of tenement houses, as well as the interiors of houses?
According to the author, Dorota Cieślik (Miss Dorys):
"In my opinion, varicose veins are the city organism napping behind the city walls. Where the walls break, the varicose veins emerge into the daylight: they most often emerge from between old bricks, from under broken sheets or chipped plaster".
The artist invented the whole Gang of Disgusters, whose performances, called by her "Portraits of Ancestors", weave into the urban fabric. It started with Warsaw, specifically Praga Północ. Now you can see them on the streets of Berlin, Amsterdam and even Lisbon. It is Praga (a borough in Warsaw) that connects the paintings of Żylak, which are displayed at our auction, because they were created on the basis of old paintings found in Praga's antique shops.
"I associate old paintings with tenement houses in Praga ̶ they are just as imperfect, sometimes scratched, faded and with holes. They used to be a joy to the eye, today they deteriorate, so I paint varicose veins and other characters on them ̶ to give them life and catch an eye of a passers-by or an art fanatic" .
The third Żylak is an installation created together with Szymon Gotowski (Mr. Szymon). Three-dimensional performances of varicose veins, resembling stuffed animals or toys, initiated the "Institute" festival in the Modlin Fortress. In 2019, the artists presented an installation entitled: "What is inside your brain?". The work assumed direct interaction with festival participants. They were invited to go inside the container filled with plush material from which varicose veins are made and sit on the armchairs and pouffes. The artists intended the interior to represent the human brain gangling while listening to techno music.