Line of Waves and Balance

An exhibition featuring a selection of sculptures from one of Jerzy Kędziora's latest sculptural series, „Athletes/Sportsmen", will be held in Kołobrzeg this summer. The balancing sculptures—like a line of waves and balance—search for their proper place, suspended between effort and harmony. The series' title itself can be read not only as a reference to sport but also as a metaphor for everyday life, in which each of us becomes an "athlete" facing our own limitations. Riding the wave here signifies a constant search for balance—between ambition and rest, strength and fragility, success and the risk of collapse. Balance is not a permanent state, but a process requiring vigilance and courage, as is the case with sculptures that seem to defy the laws of gravity.

The "Athletes/Sportsmen" series utilizes a new, modeling-like dynamic of expression, with elongated body proportions that heighten the sense of tension and movement. Slender, almost unreal silhouettes emphasize the liminal nature of the situations the figures find themselves in—as if each were lingering in the moment just before victory or defeat. Utilizing contemporary techniques common in today's sports, the artist consciously draws on archetypes—the struggles of the ancient Olympics and images of classical heroes, confronting them with the sensibilities of the contemporary viewer. This tension between past and present sparks a reflection on the human condition—the drive to transcend limits and the inevitability of failure. The artist seems to lead the viewer toward the "anatomy of failure," depicting moments where ambition meets limitation, and the bar—set too high—becomes both a challenge and a symbol of human determination.

Of course, the sculptures can be interpreted in various ways – discussions about them have included analogies to the fast pace of life, but also direct references to athletic competition and the struggle against the body and its capabilities. The ambiguity of these forms makes them a space for personal interpretations, in which viewers can discover their own experiences of tension, effort, and uncertainty. The balancing figures evoke moments of suspension – moments in which anything can still happen, and the direction of movement is uncertain. They reveal both determination and strength, as well as fragility and the risk of losing control.

Kędziora's sculptures provoke reflection on the contemporary human condition, functioning in a world of constant pressure and volatility. In this context, balance takes on existential significance – it becomes an attempt to maintain stability in a reality that constantly spins out of control. At the same time, these works are not merely a record of struggle; they also convey a lightness and poetic quality, suggesting that even in a state of tension, it is possible to find harmony. It is in this ambiguity – between strength and delicacy, movement and stillness – that their most universal dimension is revealed.

During May, the sculpture exhibition will be complemented by a photographic exhibition documenting selected displays of balancing sculptures in Poland and around the world. The photographs were taken by the artist's son, Bartek Kędziora.