Miroslaw Balka's 'Emplacement' at British School at Rome Explores Memory and Melancholy

The British School at Rome hosts Miroslaw Balka's solo exhibition 'Emplacement' as part of the Fragments program, running until October 17, 2016. The show features drawing, sculpture, and video, integrating with the sober white spaces and dark corridors of the venue. Works incorporate materials like wood, plaster, ash, cement, hair, salt, and soap, reflecting on personal experience, Polish history, and the Holocaust. A key piece is 'Modulor / AF / 1944' (2015), a grid with a small dash representing Anne Frank's growth in 1944, created directly on the wall. Balka describes salt as 'extremely beautiful' yet capable of causing pain. The artist will participate in a conference titled 'Memory and Responsibility' on the closing day, alongside architectural historian Joseph Rykwert. Balka's art, though not flashy, aims to deeply move viewers, engaging with themes of destiny, memory, life, and death. His early works were figurative; post-1990 they became more abstract, often with a humorous touch.