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The presented work offers a fundamental reflection on humanity’s quest to create artificial life. This desire to animate inert matter, evident in cultural works for centuries, is often analyzed in the context of the God complex. This complex describes a state in which the creator claims the right to make absolute decisions about the boundaries of existence and to exercise dominance over the created being.

At the core of the installation lies the tension between the impulse to create and the urge to control. It combines organic corporeality, represented by a flexible membrane, with an internal, moving technological core. The object, though seemingly a living organism, remains in a state of constant subordination. Its movement, resembling the helpless body spasms, is activated solely in response to the presence of a human being.

The work embodies the following thesis: in striving to create a new, autonomous being in its own image, humans do not intend to grant their creation full and unrestricted free will. The piece exposes a fragile balance between a gesture of creative tenderness and the need for absolute power over the created form.

Jagoda Golińska (b. 1997) – a graduate of the Faculty of Art at the University of Opole and of Media Art at the Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław. In her artistic practice, she explores the relationships between corporeality, nature, and technology. She creates installations and objects that juxtapose mechanical elements with forms reminiscent of biological structures.

Her work is inspired by motifs present in science fiction literature and film, as well as by the aesthetics of body horror. She is particularly interested in narratives concerning autonomy and the blurring of boundaries between humans, animals, and machines. She treats these themes as a starting point for reflection on the relationship between humans and non-human forms of existence.

Selection committee members: Katerina Kouzmitcheva, Agata Horwat, Piotr Lisowski, Dagmara Domagała, Paweł Janicki