Slawomir Elsner: Marginal

The word “marginal” is always used to describe something that is relatively unimportant, something that is minor, subordinate, insignificant. Slavomir Elsner applies the word to his “Populaire” series of coloured pencil drawings, from which he has vandalistically ripped out the middles, leaving only a couple of torn fragments at the edges. The accustomed exhibition visitor is at first taken aback by the wasteful way the artist treats his drawings, not least because they seem to have been works of extreme virtuosity, works too beautiful to be created one minute and then almost completely destroyed the next. Deprived of the actual, central motif, the naturally curious visitor has no choice but to rely on his usual way of seeing things and, using his own powers of association and imagination, mentally adds the missing pieces in order to obtain a complete picture.