In Paris, Marcin Rusak talks about himself

What is your sentimental involvement in this new collection?

Vas Florum is a very special project for me because the flowers used in each piece of the series allude to a certain person or place that was important at a certain moment in my life. Together, they embody events and memories that shaped who I am today. In practice, a documentation of my creative journey.

What technique did you use for Vas Florum?

The flowers are encapsulated within bioresin sculptures which take as a point of reference the classic shape of a vase, for me the emblematic archetype of the collector's item.

The vases allow archaeologists to easily decipher the history of ancient civilizations, decoding their ornaments and associating functions with them.

They were often embellished with floral motifs – I alluded to this tradition by using flowers while also giving them a meaning within each piece. I spent several years developing the technique with bioresin.

Can you explain the criteria for selecting the flowers you used?

Some compositions represent members of my family and my relationship with them. For example, the first in the series, called Hortus Floridus, flower garden in Latin, was created thinking of my mother and my sister who manage together the family flower shop in Warsaw.

Another, dedicated to my grandfather, uses partially burned flowers, in an allegory of the now blurred memory I have of him and of his role within our nucleus.

Other pieces refer to the different creative paths I have taken and the experiments explored together with my team.

He referred to his grandfather, a flower grower, the involuntary initiator of his artistic journey...

My grandfather grew flowers, an activity which ceased when I was born, so in my memory there is only the phase of the decline of the greenhouses.

I pursue research with flower species, as he did, although carried out with a different spirit. I am much more interested in how people can be compared to flowers, their emotional and physical interaction with the environment.

In Vas Florum the flowers are on the edge of the vases, not inside. Is it a metaphor?

After graduating, I have always placed flowers as the starting material for my work, because they offer narratives capable of explaining the world around us.

Marcin Rusak - Vas Florum

Carpenters Workshop Gallery
54 Rue De La Verrerie, Paris
19 October - 22 December 2023