WHAT IF GOAT WAS ONE OF US?

G.O.A.T. She would wear the horns branded on her like a crown until they became one. By the majesty of the crown, she will elevate life—the one that is constantly hatching. No longer is she an outcast. The prayers have been answered. She listened to them. She has chosen her flock. Strong in each and every part. For her, lions will reclaim anger that will fill her with courage. The flutter of wings of a dove will dispel the sickly air. The sheep will breathe freely. The eagle will lift her up instead of soaring above their heads. Looked after, she will pass it on. Quench the hunger. She will eat. And she will be eaten. In time, she will fully spread her wings. She will be free and she will be at liberty. She will submit to the changes in the weather and the consequences of the seasons The flock will find its place. It will resound with one voice. It will breathe out as one. The exhibition by Delfina Tlałka draws on the tension between the inherited symbol and personal gesture. It shows how we become ourselves, weaving through motifs and images that precede personal experience. By rendering the experience of transness universal, the artist treats trans- formation as a practice of life in which the intimate becomes a force driving communal change. Tlałka lets poetry expand into space and gives it the opportunity to spread its wings. She uses iconography, though she is not faithful in doing so; she warms allegory with personal experience to mould it into a new shape. Her works speak of a reality desired, one in which the body no longer has to prove where it belongs.. THE GOAT DOES NOT PERISH, BUT RETURNS IN GLORY At the centre of the story is the figure of the female goat, split between religious iconography, pas- toral ornamentation and the pop-culture GOAT (Greatest of All Time). The role of scapegoat which it has been forced into for centuries is reversed. In the interpretation of the philosopher Jonathan Sacks, the sacrificial mechanism stabilized the community by having an individual symbolically “driven” outside of it. Tlałka enables the goat to return, though not as a victim but as a subject of reclaimed autonomy. It gains a new status, shaped by the logic of contemporary culture. The Greatest of All Time suggests a shift in value judgments, by virtue of which the symbol of sacrifice is reinstated into the circulation of meanings as a figure epitomizing agency and victory. Sacrifice becomes triumph. The horns, hitherto a brand of suspicion, become a form of coronation. The transformation is not an escape from hurt, but an ascension into dignity. The nakedness of the characters may be treated as a declaration of self-acceptance. At this point, private experience morphs into iconography, while iconography becomes a new anthropology of symbols.. REBIRTH Ostrich eggs, with their long interpretive history, embody the concept of rebirth, of the beginning of life and the transcending of material boundaries. In the form of painted eggs, they become a model of persistence, in which transformation is a fundamental experience rather than a stage that culminates in a close-ended figure. Within the structure of the exhibition, they perform a temporal function, reminding us that identity is not a stable portrait, but a process. Placed on horned skulls, the objects usher in the order of life and death, initiating a dialogue be- tween the biological cycle and the cultural paradigms of its interpretation. The reference to Easter underscores the motif of return, renewal and resurrection. In this context, transition reveals itself to be a structurally similar experience: the metaphorical death of the old self becomes prerequi- site for a new configuration of life. The theme of the representations—the individual stages of a mantis’s life—highlight that as well.. A BODY FREE FROM THE CONSTRAINT OF DEFINITION In evolutionary models, the complexity of organisms is presumed to have resulted from cooper- ation between simpler forms, which supplies a framework in which the body may be conceived as a multi-layered record. Tlałka elaborates this perspective by treating the body as an archive of overlapping configurations, both inherited and potential. In such an approach, the transbody realigns the conditions of participating in the world. The transformation becomes a mechanism that alters available trajectories and, simultaneously, a tool for negotiating the functions that the body can perform in the social order. Such notions are akin to the theological tradition of rebirth and the anthropological narratives about returning to one’s roots. The transformation is an act in which attention reverses the vector of suffering. Evolution is not based on competition, but on collaboration. The transbody becomes a new composition of biological, cultural and symbolic elements. It rewrites its own code, queering biology. THE ARCHITECTURE OF TEMPORARY INTIMACY The canopies on parasol frames take the project into the dimension of situational architecture. They delineate a separate temporary space that briefly creates alternative conditions of co-presence. In line with the concept of public assembly, a community may be understood as an ephemeral structure which arises from the momentary coordination of bodies and gazes. The parasol form in its two stages—a flattened structure and a spatial dome—embodies the process of transfor- mation. It shows it as an action anchored in the function rather than in a symbol. Here, temporariness serves as a research tool, enabling one us to trace how spaces initiate rela- tionships. The interior of the umbrella becomes a short-lived Eden, which not so much separates good from guilt, but reveals how they circulate as part of the rhythms of nature. The second umbrella, combining the motif of the four-headed Światowid with St. Veronica’s veil, looks at ex- pression and bodily dignity. The modified prayer structure shows the potential for rewriting the language of protection; it reflects the experience of fear and the need for care. Sound expands the arrangement with strategies of collective attunement, creating a community that can exist even in a strict, limited timeframe. A PHILOSOPHER PAINTING COURAGE The vertical axis of the centric figure stabilizes the frame. The flat, gesturally painted figures are juxtaposed with the luminous, precisely executed detail of the attributes. This creates a tension between the spontaneity of the gesture and the iconographic meticulousness. The quotes from popular culture reveal the poetic scaffolding of the images. The artist paints courage and dissent. She does not reproduce the evil she has experienced, but transforms it into a space of rebirth. Al- legories of hope, goodness, respite, courage and pleasure make up a story of becoming, thanks to radical self-acceptance; a tale of completeness that arises from consciously experienced change. Private experiences become the essence from which new configurations of meanings and pos- sibilities are moulded. In this world, the goat is no longer a victim, but a ray of light, a vital element of a larger whole that relies on exchange, tenderness and reciprocity. This logic is informed by the recurring theme of feeding in the images. It is a gesture of love, both towards oneself and the others, manifesting in care. It demands presence, responsibility and mindfulness. It is a space where the body can be reborn, regardless of the form imposed on it before. Delfina Tlałka’s model of reality does not aim to seek universal harmony, but creates conditions for subjectivity and democratization. Phenomena occur horizontally, regardless of differences or declarations: air circulates between bodies, death remains an experience that is equal for all, while a sound wave will pass through one’s body even when they do not want to let it in. Presence is indisputable, just as the reciprocity from which an image is born.