2020 (work in progress), video, 2 min 46 s

Glass Case (2020) is a guerrilla site specific project realized in public realm in Kaohsiung City in Taiwan in January-February 2020. It is a response to immediate surroundings of a glass-case, situated in Qianjin District, and visual power of its ordinary elements and contexts: New Emigration Family Center, an abandoned City Council building across the street with a colorful sculpture in front of it, City Council Subway Station subway station, constant traffic jams, random passers-by, finally the palpable tension floating in the air related to COVID-19.

Wojciech Gilewicz' eleven small scale abstract works on paper, 65 x 50 cm each. The project is accompanied by a series of short videos that author initially posted as the project developed on his Instagram account @wojciech.gilewicz along with the photo documentation of the process of creating these works. They were placed later on in this abandoned glass-case that he took possession of without anybody noticing it as his works have blended in and have immediately become an integral part of the site. The video will be in time the only trace of the project since the works in the glass-case have been left there at the mercy of humans and natural forces.

As Gilewicz said: "This project was my way of escaping the formula of organizing and executing an art exhibition in an institutional or gallery format. I did this project without any budget, permissions, assistance of any kind, public opening or closing, etc. My fatigue and, in part, also disappointment with those formats and inherent elements of the system of art circulation made me experiment and risk with this project. However, it might turn out that in quite near future when we will really start to face the effects of the coronavirus that we will appreciate again DIY strategies, self-sufficiency as well as grass-roots and guerrilla initiatives in the arts and culture realm. We will appreciate again the power of social act, community work, and collaboration. I hope it will happen not only in the domain of artistic and cultural production, but in other spheres of our lives too, replacing "me/my" with "we/us".

As of June 2020, four months from the day paintings were installed in the glass-case, the presentation the artist intended for random passers-by and his Instagram audience is still there, safe and sound. It is on view 24/7 until someone will not reclaim this abandoned glass-case for other purposes than Wojciech Gilewicz used it for.