installation, L-size jacket; baseball bat, 80 x 5 cm
The designed and sewn collection of clothes, together with prepared gadgets, was presented during the exhibition "Views Award of the Deutsche Bank Foundation" at the Zachęta National Gallery of Art in 2017.
The work of Black Bloc is a fashion collection inspired by the image of anarchist militant groups, using "Black-bloc" tactics, which primarily rely on appropriate clothing that makes identification difficult. According to official sources, "Black-bloc" clothes should be black, as uniform as possible; they should not have any distinctive stripes, patches or inscriptions on them. Characteristic are combat pants, comfortable shoes - the so-called "glans", hooded sweatshirt, black baseball caps. They also wear baseball caps or scarves, sometimes sunglasses. The most common Black Bloc weapons are stones and, less frequently, Molotov cocktails; occasionally firecrackers, smoke candles, paint canisters, slingshots, wooden clubs, metal pipes.
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Luke Surowiec is an interdisciplinary artist: sculptor, performer, stage designer, video maker and author of social actions. He graduated from the Department of Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow, and also studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań and the Universität der Künste in Berlin. In his objects and artistic interventions, Surowiec penetrates and explores current social relations, and also addresses historical and political issues. The artist rejects classical categories or classifications in favor of intermedia works that explore the human condition in contemporary socioeconomic conditions. In his works, he tries to draw attention to marginalized social groups and their problems, including historical pasts seemingly buried in the past. His work also explores issues of memory. His work takes the form of a method to explore public reality, with a focus on marginalized individuals. In his artistic activity, he addresses current social issues, also going beyond the walls of official art institutions. He is a recipient of a scholarship from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and a winner of the prestigious Spojrzenia (2017) competition for young artists. He has participated in numerous exhibitions at home and abroad. Among them, the 7th Berlin Biennale (2012), Dziady, Bunkier Sztuki (2013), What can be seen - Polish art today, MSN, Warsaw (2014), Wejście do portu, Emigration Museum, Gdynia (2016), Late Polishness, CCA Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw (2017).
