Cezary Poniatowski: Deep House

The exhibition titled Deep House at MeetFactory presents a large-scale installation by Polish artist Cezary Poniatowski. With time frozen at the “doomsday clock”—a few minutes past midnight - the gallery transforms into a surreally ghostly apartment abandoned by its original inhabitants. A microcosm of insects, bacteria, and viruses is quietly taking over all the everyday objects here; rolled-up rugs, their shapes resembling staring reptiles or the shrouds of human spectres, become new post-human protagonists - sometimes comfortably seated in a massage chair, at other times perhaps inhabiting glass terrariums and constantly watching the viewer. The insect-like objects play with things like children learning how a household works, how to mimic human habits, rearrange the interior, and perhaps attempt to cure the space of this condition through acupuncture and massage. Gas heaters bathe us in warmth, and Cezary’s wall reliefs from recent years complement the spatial scenes like imaginary reliquaries full of repressed memory. The result is a fantastically speculative scenario that, instead of a dark vision of the apocalypse, shows us a strangely soothing and quiet version of nature’s possible future retribution.

Poniatowski creates reliefs and objects from old carpets, black imitation leather, and insulation foam typical of prefabricated apartments in the Eastern Bloc, many of which still exist today. He views these materials as the “skin” of a space, or a membrane from which the darkness of suppressed images and the noise of the recent past struggle to emerge. The artist incorporates telescopes, headphones, and speaker grilles into his works, transforming them into silently peering observers who pose the question of who is watching whom. The exhibition also has a personal dimension - fifteen years ago, the artist was bitten by a tick, and the neurological consequences of Lyme disease gave him a direct physical sense of the insect world’s dominance. What has always functioned in his work as a metaphor in the form of a ghostly presence hidden beneath the surface of things can thus also be perceived in the exhibition as a lived experience.

Cezary Poniatowski: Deep House
MeetFactory Gallery

6. 5. – 26. 7. 2026 
Opening: 5. 5., 18:00 | free event within the Public House 

Curator: Ján Gajdušek
Production: Nikol Hoangová
Graphic Designer: Jakub Kučera

Partners: 

Culture Moves Europe 
Polský Institut Praha 

Tickets: 

100 CZK at bar MeetFactory or GoOut
50 CZK students, seniors, ZTP
The ticket is valid for both exhibition spaces. Tickets can also be purchased at the door.

For group discounts (over 10 people), guided tours of exhibitions or press accreditation, please contact pr@meetfactory.cz

Opening Hours: 

MeetFactory Gallery and Kostka Gallery:
Mo–Su 13:00–19:45 (or accordying the programme)

Galerie Zeď: 
Sa–Su 13:00–19:45 and within backyard events