Maria Gvardeitseva - A new group exhibition, Vacuum, is part of the accompanying programme for Cracow Art Week.

A vacuum, a space devoid of matter, becomes a metaphor for breathlessness, absence, and transformation. Through sculpture, sound, and mixed media, artists Kalina Bańka, Maria Gvardeitseva, Sofia Malemina, Małgorzata Mitka, Maria Węsławska-Gribina, and Marta Wojciechowska challenge perceptions of emptiness, revealing it as a force that shapes and evolves. Vacuum challenges the notion that emptiness is merely absence. Instead, it is a presence that shapes transformation.

Maria Gvardeitseva’s An Altar of Identity. My Minsk, shown in the VACUUM exhibition, is a fragile, intimate space shaped by memory and loss. It stands as a fractured shrine — part installation, part confession. Using old windows, vintage mirrors, and family photographs, Gvardeitseva creates a site of reflection. Her Minsk is no longer a place she can return to. It exists only in dreams, blurred and shifting.

Born in Minsk and now based in London, Gvardeitseva brings the political into the personal with sharp clarity. This work continues her practice of turning life into material. Exile is not framed as shame or failure. It is a deliberate act, a line drawn. She has left, but she carries the fragments with her.

In VACUUM, where absence takes on form, Gvardeitseva’s altar offers no definitive conclusions. It serves as a space for “mirror-thinking”, a place of reflection where viewers may catch glimpses of themselves in the mirrors. The work invites a moment of pause and contemplation. This fractured shrine encourages viewers to engage not only with the artist’s inner monsters, but also with their own.

Curated by: Darina Rogatskina
Produced by: Sensity Studio