At the exhibition entitled S/he at the Re Gallery we present works by four students at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk: Jakub Danilewicz, Adam Kruk, Patryk Lutrzykowski and Michał Szlaga, produced in the Transdisciplinary Workshop, run by Professor Grzegorz Klaman and his assistant Dorota Nieznalska, PdD.

The works illustrate the changes that have taken place in the social roles designated to men or women. The subject matter of S/he is related to the exhibition presented in the main part of the museum – Gender in Art. The artists question the staying power of the prevailing stereotypes and postulate the need to create the vision of a new femininity and masculinity for the needs of the youngest generation. They confront the reality of the liberal Western Europe with the moderation of the Central part of the continent and the patriarchy of the Balkans, demonstrating how today, thanks to the more open attitudes present in the prevailing culture as well as the most recent advances in medicine, individuals are increasingly more able to make a decision about their own gender and sex.

Adam Kruk’s website – which the artist treats as an object of art – provides an introduction to the exhibition; it is a compilation of satirical and documentary materials, all relevant to the issue of gender. The remaining works fall into two distinct groups: the embroidery by Jakub Danilewicz and the colouring book by Patryk Lutrzykowski deal with the subject matter within social dimension, whereas the films by Adam Kruk and Michał Szlaga pose questions about the extent to which the individual is free to decide about their own gender. All the artists seek a path forward towards liberation from the clichés related to the perception of femininity and masculinity.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue in Polish and English.