Kraków — “Geppetto Syndrome”

Outsider Art Research Station, autumn 2023. A show that named the phenomenon — and tied our path into one story.

Year 2023 Venue Outsider Art Research Station, Kraków Status solo exhibition

Story

It began with a simple email: Karolina wrote asking if she could buy “something” — a present for her husband, a collector and researcher of art brut. That’s how we met Piotr, who became our first buyer and, in practice, our closest ally and friend.

In long exchanges (one result being the essay “A World of Crumbs and Ruins”) I shared a term forming in my head: “Geppetto Syndrome” — after hours of staring at a wall full of Pan Miś’s figures, as if carved to life “on trial”.

Kraków welcomed us with golden hour. Me, Michał, Bartek — as always. Lunch, two hours to the opening — a beer in the park, a city guard check, two fines (Pan Miś dodged it like a fox). The opening led by Prof. Grażyna Borowik flows like a song. Then a sentence lands — and the emotion balloon bursts.

At the finissage, same intensity; next morning we drove east — to the Zdzisław Beksiński Museum in Sanok. [link — to add]

Gallery (selection)

Thanks

To Karolina Gierowska — for the initial spark; to Piotr Gierowski — for guidance and companionship; to Prof. Grażyna Borowik — for support (and a beautiful “good omen”); to Dariusz Tokarczyk — for editing the debut catalogue.