TRANSFORMER OUTSIDE TRANSFORMER Andrzej Wasilewski The Albedo Effect 78° 12.2' N, 015° 35,3 E

Spitsbergen Artist Center

Wei 100.2 Longyearbyen

Curator: Stanisław Ruksza (TRAFO Trafostacja Sztuki)

The first exhibition within the framework of Andrzej Wasilewski's travelling, art-based project Albedo Effect, curated by Stanisław Ruksza, will begin at the Spitsbergen Artist Center in Longyearbyen (Svalbard).

The artistic concept of Albedo Effect is an extension and continuation of the project The Absolute Factory by Andrzej Wasilewski — a black project that referred to the broadly understood carbon in philosophical, geopolitical, sociological and artistic dimensions. The Absolute Factory — a black project — referred to Karel Čapek's concept of 100% burning of matter (carbon) in order to obtain an unlimited source of energy, which became the starting point for the creation of a cycle of black art installations. The Albedo Effect — a white design, seemingly opposite to The Absolute Factory — a black design — is intended to be a concept of symbolic unveiling. Art installations from The Absolute Factory series were covered with coal in both the literal and symbolic sense.

The name Albedo (in physics: the reflection coefficient of radiation) suggests the transition from black (which absorbs light) to white (which reflects it). However, this process carries considerable ambiguity at the symbolic level: exposure can lead to openness, transparency, enlightenment and purification, but it can also reveal something that no one wants to encounter (for example, dangerous bacteria or viruses from thousands of years ago), which was hidden as a result of various processes (such as ice ages).

Melting can mean transformation, plasticization, and transition to a new state, but it can also suggest fading, blurring of boundaries, loss of form, and immersion in fluidity.

The Albedo Effect is therefore not a simple, unambiguous whitewashing of a black design, but a complex process that, through the act of purification, reveals new, ambivalent characteristics and questions.

The premise of the Albedo Effect artistic project is to travel to different places around the world, and individual stops take the form of exhibitions, presentations, interventions, artistic gestures and the collection of audiovisual or quasi-scientific materials. These places will mark distinct points on the world map, determined by latitude and longitude coordinates.

Eventually, these points—along with their mutual position—will be symbolically connected to form an irregular configuration — a shape that will then serve as the basis for the creation of a synthetic superglacier, symbolically covering the world in the dystopian Anthropocene era.