CLOUDED APOLLO — Ilczyszyn, Mydlak & Sadrak

Name: CLOUDED APOLLO — Ilczyszyn, Mydlak & Sadrak
Start: 2025-04-04T17:00:00+02:00
End: 2025-04-04T22:00:00+02:00
Location: Coupure Rechts 308, 9000 Ghent, Belgium

Schedule

Fri Apr 04 2025 at 05:00 pm to 10:00 pm

UTC+02:00

Location

Coupure Rechts 308, 9000 Ghent, Belgium | Gent, OV

Ilczyszyn, Mydlak, and Sadrak have been brought together by sharing their childhood memories of these sun-loving butterflies climbing plants and waiting with their wings spread out to be warmed by the sun's rays. In Poland, only two species from the Parnassius genus occur: Mnemosyne and Apollo. Both are strictly protected and their population is declining.

CLOUDED APOLLO is an English common name for the butterfly Parnassius mnemosyne (Linnaeus, 1758), a species of diurnal butterfly from the family Papilionidae. Called after Mnemosyne, the Muse of memory, the daughter of Uranus and Gaia and the mother of the nine Muses.
The first part of its scientific Latin term Parnassius and the English description refers to Apollo, the Greek god of the sun, healing and music, as this butterfly is also known to give ‘musical performances’ by its transparent wings which rustle like sheets of paper. The genus Parnassius is associated with Mount Parnassus, the summit of which was considered to be home to Apollo and the Muses.

Hanna Ilczyszyn’s work explores the ephemeral aspect of moments, resonating with the butterfly’s delicate and fleeting form. Her paintings emphasize impermanence but at the same time consolidating instants through intuitive gestures. While Hanna paints fast, Barbara's works are often created over the span of many years. Her fragrant, plant-based installations, both slowly evolving and decaying, refer to the perpetual loops, including loss, transition and resilience. They correspond to Paulina Sadrak’s photographic and embroidered objects, which mirror the mutable nature of memory—once fixed, they too can shift, fade, and reflect fragility. She reimagines both historical and personal memories incorporating archival materials.

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At BLANCO they combine different perspectives and propose a multisensory experience that encourages introspection along with active engagement.

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During the opening there will be a musical performance by Yann Deval (who previously recorded the Wake album at BLANCO in 2023).

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The exhibition is supported by the Strzeminski Academy of Art in Lodz, Poland.

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OPENING: 04.04.2025 (Friday) / 17:00 - 22:00
Music performance: 18:00 - 21:00
OPEN DAYS:
05.04 (Saturday) 11:00 - 20:00
06.04 (Sunday) 11:00 - 20:00
09.04 (Wednesday) 16:00 - 20:00
10.04 (Thursday) 16:00 - 20:00
11.04 (Friday) 16:00 - 20:00
12.04 (Saturday) 11:00 - 20:00
13.04 (Sunday) 11:00-15:00

BLANCO
Coupure Rechts 308
9000 Gent

On 12.04 (Saturday) from 15:30 - 18:00
“Care for decay”/ lecture + discussion + workshop by Barbara Mydlak / presentation of the insights of the research supported by the Art Decree grant from the Flemish Department of Culture, Youth & Media.

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HANNA ILCZYSZYN
www.fajnahanna.com
instagram.com/hanna.ilczyszyn
Hanna Ilczyszyn is a Polish artist from Wroclaw living in Brussels and working in Ghent.
She was an MFA student at KASK in Ghent, and previously studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw, Poland. She has been exhibiting her work at solo and group shows in Asia, Europe and US.
She paints portraits, animals, plants and landscapes. Hanna is interested in the interaction between living creatures and their surroundings.
Her work tends to be intuitive. She paints fast. Ilczyszyn usually thinks about her next work for a while, but then the execution is always rather quick. She believes this allows to follow her intuition and paint in a more expressive way. Also, she enjoys the little imperfections resulting from such a process: her goal is to capture a feeling, rather than a perfect image.

BARBARA MYDLAK
www.barbaramydlak.com
instagram.com/mydlak_studio
Barbara Mydlak is a Polish artist who lives in Ghent and works internationally. She studied archaeology at the University of Warsaw and visual arts at the Strzeminski Academy of Art in Lodz. She completed the Interdisciplinary practice-led Doctoral Studies and obtained a PhD in Fine Arts at the Abakanowicz University of Fine Arts in Poznan, Poland.
Barbara Mydlak creates multidimensional cycles of works that usually evolve and expand over the span of many years. Her exhibitions often take the form of dynamic, performative laboratories — spaces where she restores aged objects, documents their transformative processes, and creates new works. Inviting direct interaction, Mydlak’s multisensory installations combine different scents, flavours, textures or sounds.
Her works are related to autobiographical stories, methods of forgetting specific memories and traumas, as well as rituals, mostly associated with illness, healing, death and the process of decay. Handmade paper installations she creates have an ephemeral element, they are made of perishable and vulnerable to destruction waste plant material that can be transformed and reused.

PAULINA SADRAK
paulinasadrak.wixsite.com/website
instagram.com/paulinasadrak1
Paulina Sadrak is a visual artist based in Lodz, Poland. She holds a Master's degree in Textile Art from the Department of Textile Art at the Strzeminski Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz, and a Bachelor's degree in Cultural Studies with a specialization in Film and New Media Studies from the University of Lodz. Currently, she serves as an academic instructor at the Experimental Textile Studio at the Strzeminski Academy of Fine Arts.
Her exploration of memory and the processes of memory retention is at the centre of her artistic inquiry, often drawing on the intersection of the physical and digital realms. Sadrak's interest in archival materials plays a pivotal role in her creative practice, particularly her work with photographic archives, which she reuses and reimagines to explore personal and collective histories. Her recent projects combine textile works with archival images, highlighting the fragile and dynamic nature of memory. Through her practice, Sadrak investigates how memories are formed, preserved, and ultimately transformed over time.