For many Krakow’s visitors, one of the main attractions to photograph is Igor Mitoraj’s monument on the Main Square at the foot of the Town Hall Tower. But, for the last few days, the tourists standing before the impressive antique head have encountered a surprise.

Near the sculpture stands a smallish glass case contenting some unusual items. All around it there are candles burning and arrangements of flowers. Is this some new memorial site? Or is it just a museum exhibition – these are the sort of questions that the tourists must be asking themselves.
The installation is, to say the least, a little mysterious. Inside there are documents, ladies fashion accessories, reproductions of artworks and religious items, photographs of scenes of violence, erotic symbols, maps, pictures of gas chambers and the death camp at Auschwitz. What do all these things have in common? They have been brought together by the young Belarusian artist Sergey Shabohin, building his work the Store.
This multi-layered narrative composed by the artist contains many local and global references, symbols, and contexts. Shabohin’s work seeks to redefine existing paradigm. In a city as old an as historical as Krakow, a certain stagnation can set in over time. The hierarchy of tourist attractions and the way they are visited are already established. All of the guides concentrate on the same historic sites. One could say that the tourist moves along pre-established paths, glossing over the historical and spatial contexts. Sergey Shabohin disrupts this everyday spectacle, and using viral messages, he engenders a synthesis of public and private life, the past and the present, the new with the old, facts with lies and the uncommon with the banal.

You are cordially invited to a meeting with the Belarusian artist, today at 6 PM at the Institute of Art History at 53 Grodzka Street.