Lescer Art Center

 

In 1927, Jan Witold Wisłocki began building a house, which was the first to stand in the place known today as Zalesie Górne. The pre-war villa at Pionierów 11/13 st. fell into oblivion for years. Now its interiors have revived again - the Lescer Art Center was established and began its activity (under the original name Galeria Lescer) on the 30th of June 2018. The first initiative was a series of exhibitions entitled "Villa: reactivation".

 

The name of the center comes from the inscription "Lescer" found on one of the bricks in the ground floor of the house. This is the signature of the Leścer Industry and Trade Association, founded in Warsaw in 1932 and holding shares in Łubna Ceramic Workshops, which included five brick factories. Already through the name we want to emphasize belonging to this specific place, which is the villa's space itself and more broadly - Zalesie Górne.

 

A series of interventions and artistic residencies brings a new life to a forgotten space. All activities take place in the renovated part of the villa of Jan Witold Wisłocki, which consists of ten rooms, including an office, workshop space and three exhibition halls. Due to its location in a former residential house, the gallery is not a sterile white cube, but a place where life goes on. Moving from one room to another you can see a tiled stove from the beginning of the last century, antique furniture and other items that once belonged to the Wisłocki family.

 

It is also important for us that Edward Krasiński lived and worked in Zalesie Górne, and first presented his famous blue tape (blue scotch) here in 1968. In the same year there was also a loud ball Farewell to Spring, organized by the environment of artists and critics associated with the Foksal Gallery in Warsaw, including Krasiński, Zbigniew Gostomski, and Anka Ptaszkowska, as a response to the political repression of March '68. The ball combined fun with performance blurring the boundaries between art and life. In the same way Krasiński treated his actions, constantly undermining the character, sense and meaning of art, emphasizing his creative attitude towards reality.

 

Ewa Sułek & Paweł Zaręba