new horizon is a wave

Ewa Partum

Kestner Gesellschaft is pleased to present a new project for its building’s facade: a neon work new horizon is a wave by Polish artist Ewa Partum.

Visual poetess and pioneer of the Eastern European feminist and conceptual art, Ewa Partum created a poetic manifesto new horizon is a wave in 1972 while contemplating the shore of the Baltic Sea and reflecting upon the constrains of the sociopolitical life under the Communist regime. Originally conceived as a stamp within Partum’s iconic series poem by ewa and distributed world-wide by the artist via her own home-based, now legendary Gallery Adres in Lódz (soon to become a centre of the Polish mail-art), new horizon is a wave has been perceived as a bold announcement of the new to come, carrying a prophetic message of a necessity for a better future to arrive, a new perspective built upon change, constant movement and plurality.

Indicating a line at which the earth's surface and the sky appear to meet, the horizon marks the limit of knowledge and experience - a border where the known and the unknown coalesce, where what we can see and traverse, encounters what is unseen, yet unexplored, and possibly impenetrable. Obscured on a foggy day, or crystal clear when the sky is blue, the horizon is the beginning of a new frontier, a zone of challenge and promise. For Ewa Partum, (a) new horizon is a wave: never still, often unpredictable, always evolving current, a revolutionary force which brings progress and rejuvenation, beyond dreams and desires, an embracement of the vastness of life and the interconnectedness of all things, ultimately, a tender indication of hope and belief in the infinite possibilities of the uncharted territories that stretch out before and beyond us.

The critical gesture of new horizon is a wave has accompanied Ewa Partum through over half a century of her life and carrier so far, receiving new meanings as well as taking on various forms and renderings. Kestner Gesellschaft is proud to present an original version of the work - 1972 stamp - as well as its 2017 Lyon Biennale cinematic version with a static shot of the stormy sea and the new rendition of new horizon is a wave as a neon work, radiating with the intense and vibrant electric blue over the turquoise surface of the building’s glass facade, once more powerfully pointing out its urgency and relevance.

Ewa Partum (born 1945 in Grodzisk Mazowiecki, Poland) belongs to the first generation of Polish conceptual artists, who paved the way for feminist performance and body art, testifying to the political activism of the former Eastern Europe. Affirming that “any act of thought is an act of art”, Partum focuses on the political economy of signs and the materialisation of language in her actions and installations in public space, as well as in her mail-art or visual or “active” poetry.

Most recently Ewa Partum received Lovis-Corinth-Prize 2024 of the Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie Regensburg which currently hosts the artist’s retrospective “ewa partum: my touch is a touch of a woman” (through September 8th, 2024).

We would like to thank Galerie Mathias Güntner for the generous support.