Despite the title, Robert Zając’s work is not about a lullaby. Rather, it refers to constraints, cramped conditions, necessity and motion. More specifically, this work refers to a wide variety of feelings which are evoked whenever we take an elevator. The lettering motif is borrowed from the world of illustrations – it alludes to expressive strings of letters that penetrate, for instance, a cartoon page, to express screaming. Besides showing a text to people who are in the elevator, the project allows them to "enter" the text literally – when they get off on the floors where the elevator stops, when they enter or leave the elevator. The project draws inspiration from a number of works that belong to the so-called “concrete poetry” movement (e.g. Stanisław Dróżdż’s mural on the building of the Centre for Culture in Katowice) and Wojciecha Fangor’s oeuvre where the viewer’s motion is made part of the artistic expression. The project could be classified as being close to wall painting. It resembles a poster and draws heavily on cartoons and advertisements. The unavoidable closeness of images plays a significant role here, since it is so easy to get close to them in a crowded elevator. On the other hand, what also matters is the environment of a state institution and this specific office that serves i.a. to register births, deaths and companies.
The project is part of the activities carried by the Socially Engaged Art Studio “Rewiry” at the Centre for Culture in Lublin.
Concept and execution by: Robert Zając
The project uses the Geogrotesque font designed by Eduardo Manso.