A sculpture that purifies the air
The sculpture-machine, as Kuba Bąkowski’s work is called, was transported to the Wroclaw Contemporary Museum on the platform of a truck. This is not surprising, since the entire installation weighs almost five tones and required stable transportation.
One of the reasons was its research function – the Dust-Eater had been designed not only as a work of art, but perhaps mainly as a precise absorber of municipal smog. The machine purifies also the air sucked in by itself and precisely records results of its operations. You can find them on the special website every day.
The artist addressing the ecological catastrophe
Made in 2017, Kuba Bąkowski’s design was presented for the first time at Artists’ Square [Plac Artystów] in Kielce, where it fulfilled exactly the same function as currently at Plac Strzegomski, where the Wroclaw Contemporary Museum is located. The artist’s work is a reaction to appalling statistical data at the moment when 33 Polish cities were included among the (literally) black list of Europe’s 50 most polluted places. It also proved once more that art can be maximally functional and useful in the face of threats posed by our civilisation.
Belonging to the Nowa Przestrzeń Sztuki [New Space of Art] Foundation, the Dust-Eater will be available to the Wroclaw Contemporary Museum until the end of the exhibition New normativeness. Wroclaw 1970 Artistic Symposium (i.e., until 14th December 2020). It will constantly purify the air around the bunker at Plac Strzegowski, so it is worth not only seeing, but also stopping by for some time in the vicinity. And getting a breath of fresh air.
