Patrycja Orzechowska

Patrycja Orzechowska in her film/photo project titled Settings/exercises undertook the transfer of psychological therapy in the form of installation art. She has asked about the possibility of restoring the proper order of things: the relevant relationships in the family and the respect for parents and partners that can provide inner peace. Orzechowska referred to the controversial method of German psychologist, philosopher and ex monk Bert Hellinger. This method is for the healing of tangled and broken family bonds and restoring proper place of excluded persons. Although in modern psychology, Hellinger icauses controversy, but certainly this is very creative and visually attractive form of psychotherapy where the patient is a participant in the new description of reality. The artist shows us scheme of therapy and at the same time asks if we are free in the society and how others manipulate us? (…) Orzechowska treated this method as an experimental model. Its creation was strengthened twice in the exhibition, by inviting professional actors and directing the whole situation. Although she repeatedly reached for her works on themes and forms taken from the performing arts: theatre, dance and movie then this cooperation with theatre has become both a visual and ideological key for the construction of the exhibition. The exhibition consists of twenty six small sizes photos and five screen video installation. The actors were treated as trained players dressed in the unified kind of uniform. Ideological aspect of roles such as mother, child, illness, death are symbolized by the human figure. Images of the participants were supplemented with a graphic description of the relation. Notes in the background, mathematical formulas, symbols, typography let guess the subject of individual stories. Photographs accompanied by a video installation Better where the participants are in a sense, anointed by the author, who introduces them to the scene. The whole creates a kind of choreography on stage with more free and critical look at the pursuit of order. The project Settings/exercises researches the limits of habits and possibilities of self-change, but it also is a question about the reasons for interference in the development of personality and lack of form of social relationships. Especially today, when the crisis of identity really exists this theme seems to be particularly interesting. She doesn’t affirm the method, but she tries to show methods of social manipulation, to which we submit in order to find of harmony and security.