WHO IS THIS MYSTERIOUS BOY?

1-2 Zacheta National Gallery, Warsaw, 2003 | 3 Lion’s Den, first version of the same installation, New York, 1994 | 4 Manhattan Gallery, Lodz, 1995

Soon after his seventh birthday the boy disappeared with his mother. As I heard his story in the Jardin du Luxembourg, my eyes rested on the statue of King David on a slender column, then my gaze shifted to a pair of stone lions. Their sight made me recall the story of King David’s misfortunes and a boyish young girl painted in the Villa dei Misteri in Pompeii. In my installation I fused the boy with the girl and both of them with Paris. After almost two decades in New York, my strolls in Paris led me to confront the past, and I became fascinated with sculpted stones and old walls covered with graffiti. The installation was first shown in June 1995 at the Manhattan Gallery in Lodz as part of The Eighth International Triennale of Tapestry. – Who’s the mysterious boy? – visitors asked me. – He is a child in hiding, a small Daniel in the lions' den or a young Psyche I had been once waiting all night for her dear little Amor.

1-5 Zacheta National Gallery, Warsaw, 2003

I took parts of the Mysterious Boy to Japan, the birthplace of ephemeral installations made of paper, cloth and air, and the country my art does not need to be explained. A young woman bowed to me at the opening in Fukuoka and in pigeon English said: – You Miss artist before born was Japanese girl.

1-6 Details of the Installation Who’s This Mysterious Boy?, Kyoto, 1995