ANNA ZARADNY | Enjoy the Silence
About the event
ANNA ZARADNY | Enjoy the Silence
Opening of the exhibition
📅 24.01.2026, 18:00 — vernissage
📅 24.01–7.03.2026 — exhibition duration
Curator: Katarzyna Krysiak
Partner: Fundacja Sztuki Polskiej ING
📍 Galeria Foksal
ul. Foksal 1/4
Warsaw
Events and meetings:
- 📅 21.02, 15:00 — Guided tour by Anna Zaradny of the “Enjoy the Silence” exhibition with PJM interpretation
- 📅 28.02, 15:00 — Rendez‑vous of Galeria Foksal and Fundacja Sztuki Polskiej ING. The first part of the event will take place at Galeria Foksal from 15:00–16:00; the second part will begin at 17:00 in front of the Foundation’s seat at ul. Puławska 2.
- 📅 7.03, 12:00–18:00 — exhibition finissage — radio play/happening
“Enjoy the Silence” is a silent video work of a contemplative character, arranged in sequences showing splashes of matter that begin to form shimmering constellations. Focusing attention on a single detail and a hyperrealistic way of recording moments of surface disintegration reveal inspirations from structural film. Through suggestive manipulation of movement and light, a plastic material emerged that can be considered in choreographic terms. The film transports the viewer to a realm reminiscent of both outer space and an oceanic abyss, offering the chance to immerse in silence; at the same time, the bursting matter creates intense audial imaginations that can amplify feelings of unease.
The dominant video work on display is accompanied by spatial installations that extend the film beyond the projection medium. The artist materializes a chosen frame, multiplying it within the gallery space and giving it the status of an object. The image is stopped and takes the form of a silent score. Elements such as a shard of glass observed through a peephole in the wall function as a focal point of attention, triggering a relationship between seeing and imagined sound. Another object, repeating the shape of the score and placed in a snowy landscape outside the gallery window, moves the experience beyond the exhibition interior, knitting the exhibition order with the external reality.
The central problem of the installation is the illusoriness of sensory perception. Images of broken glass and the lack of fixed sound put the viewer into a state of cognitive dissonance. The boundaries between materiality and ephemeral sensation become blurred. The image seduces with aesthetic precision while destabilizing a clear identification of matter, evoking associations with ice, water, or cosmic dust. The expectation of sound and the tension between contemplation and an instinctive reaction to “exploding” matter trigger somatic responses and affect the viewer’s nervous system. Slowed movement softens the sharpness of disintegration, offering an experience of relaxation and taming of fear — of darkness, fragility, and sudden disturbance of calm. It invites — savor the silence.
The work also resonates with ecological and climate contexts. A shard of glass evokes a fragment of a calving glacier — an ephemeral, fragile sign of a process of disintegration. Silence in “Enjoy the Silence” contrasts with the problem of sonic pollution of the environment, one of the invisible plagues of accelerated civilization. In this sense, the exhibition becomes a space of mindfulness, quieting, and critical reflection.
An important reference point for the exhibition is the concept of deep listening and the tradition of musical and filmic avant-garde, including the work of John Cage. Silence does not function here as absence but as a strategy to intensify perception — activating listening to what is potential, imagined, and not directly recordable. “Enjoy the Silence” proposes a border experience: suspended between sound and its absence, delight and unease, matter and the process of its disintegration.
Work: Anna Zaradny “Enjoy the Silence”, 2018, video 13'08", collection of Fundacja Sztuki Polskiej ING
In 2026 Galeria Foksal celebrates the 60th anniversary of its activity. As part of the jubilee program, a year-long program of exhibitions and artistic actions is being carried out, in which Anna Zaradny’s exhibition is one of the elements.
BIO: Anna Zaradny (b. 1977) — sound and visual artist, composer, instrumentalist, co‑founder of the Musica Genera festival and label. She works in the areas of sound and visual arts, drawing on experience in improvised and experimental music. She works with scores, performances, objects, and sound installations, centering the relationship between sound, space, and the body.
