A Negro in the Castle (2018)
Inspired by the statue of “Apteka Pod Murzynem” (literally the “Pharmacy under the Negro”), discover outside a drugstore near Katowice, Poland, Marques created an installation in several interventions in the Castle Museum of Pszczyna.
Becoming both curator and artist, he combined the displacement of works from the collections of the historical interiors of the palace and its creations. With the help of the historians, the story of Sluelim has been reveled, a young egyptian who grew up in the castle, and brought by prince Hans Heinrich XI in 1862. By doing so, the Negro figure becomes central for questioning the power relationship in the personal history of the “von Pless” ducal family.
With the support of Ars Cameralis, Poland, and Hauts de France Region
⟶ Shown at Microscript, interventions in space, group show with Alex Grein, Dominik Ritszel, Oct-Nov 2018, at Castle Museum of Pszczyna, PL. Curator: Marek Zieliński
A Negro in the Castle
installation view
Mohren Apotheke zu Pless (Moor Pharmacy of Pless)
diptych of two inkjet prints, framed, 22×31 cm, 2018
left: reproduction of a medical receipt, issued in 1864 by Carl Höfer, owner of the “Pod Murzynem” pharmacy, from the collection of the National Archives in Katowice, branch in Pszczyna.
right: photograph made from the interiors of the museum by the artist
installation views:
left: Mohren Apotheke zu Pless (Moor Pharmacy of Pless): diptych of two inkjet prints face to face, 2018
right: intervention made by the artist with a lytograph from the collection of the Museum
Mohren Apotheke zu Pless (Moor Pharmacy of Pless), 2018
Suelim “Von Pless”
inkjet print, mounted on the original frame of Prince Hans Heinrich XI engraving, 2018
A view to the Pharmacy, in Tkacka street from the Prince’s Stables
left: inkjet print on dibond, 64×97,5 cm, 2018
right: guéridon in the form of a black woman, Italy, 19th c., gilt and polychrome wood, from the collection of the Castle Museum in Pszczyna
A Negro in the Castle
views of the interventions: displacement of various artworks of the museum’s collection