Marcin Dudek, Zakład, 2023 – 2025 Installation view, OFFSCREEN Paris, 2025.
Courtesy of the artist and Harlan Levey Projects.
For its third participation to OFFSCREEN Paris, Harlan Levey Projects (Brussels) presents Polish-born, Belgium-based artist Marcin Dudek whose project strongly resonates with the architecture of Saint-Louis de la Salpêtrière chapel.
Known for his evocative « Memory Box » installations, as well as paintings, sculptures, and performances, Dudek’s multidisciplinary practice is deeply rooted in personal experience, reframed through a lens of social abstraction. His work investigates themes of crowd psychology, identity, trauma, and survivalist strategies shaped by subcultural affiliations and the turbulent shift from communism to hyper-capitalism.
Harlan Levey, co-founder of the gallery, reaffirms his commitment to OFFSCREEN, citing the fair’s unique curatorial direction as a strong reason for his continued participation. Dudek’s compelling body of work has been previously showcased during a solo exhibition at IKOB – Museum of Contemporary Art in Eupen, making a significant moment.
Founded in Brussels in 2013 by Winnie Kwok and Harlan Levey, Harlan Levey Projects began as a space for social dialogue and cross-disciplinary exploration. Since then, it has evolved into a gallery with a sharp focus on collaboration and support for ambitious, concept-driven artistic practices. Working with a select group of artists, HLP champions research-based work that engages with complex social, scientific, and technological questions.
In 2021, the gallery relocated to a new 250-square-meter space in Molenbeek, now housing exhibition areas and artist studios.
Marcin Dudek, Zakład, 2023 – 2025 Installation view, OFFSCREEN Paris, 2025. Courtesy of the artist and Harlan Levey Projects.
You are presenting Marcin Dudek two strikingly immersive works Zakład (2023–2025) and Nestman (2025) : what’s at stake ?
Zakład is a full-scale, hyper-realistic reconstruction of a squatted hair salon located in the basement of a Kraków apartment block — a space originally built by Dudek’s sister in the turbulent years following the collapse of the Polish People’s Republic. The artist has meticulously dismantled and reassembled the salon using its original materials, fixtures, and surfaces. Human hair, collected over several years, is embedded into the walls and architecture, infusing the space with both literal and metaphorical traces of life. The result is a haunting, tactile environment that blurs the boundaries between domestic resilience, informal economies, and post-communist survival strategies.
Marcin Dudek, Nestman, 2025.
Media player, SD card, amplifier, 4 speakers, LED screen, video loop, acrylic lens, wood, steel, aluminium, medical tape, smoke grenade, jesmonite, paper, image transfer, UV varnish.
Alongside this, Dudek unveils Nestman, a new audiovisual triptych that lures the viewer in with a pulsing, club-like beat, an echo of distant euphoria or agitation. This surreal, miniature theatre unfolds into a dreamlike reimagining of the KS Cracovia football stadium, seen through the lens of a fan’s fragmented psyche. On the pitch, a crowd of naked figures moves chaotically, eluding the gaze of referees, as orange smoke floods the stands in dense, corrosive clouds. Hovering above the scene, a suspended glass orb plays looping cellphone footage from actual football matches, weaving personal obsession with collective ritual, and collapsing the boundaries between spectator and spectacle.
These works exemplify Dudek’s approach: drawing on lived experience to construct charged environments that challenge viewers to confront the politics of space, memory, and identity.
Marcin Dudek, Zakład, 2023 – 2025 Installation view, OFFSCREEN Paris, 2025. Courtesy of the artist and Harlan Levey Projects.
What makes this fair special to you ?
What keeps me coming back to OFFSCREEN is its unique curatorial vision Julien’s approach, building bridges between photography and contemporary art, feels both timely and necessary.
On one hand, you encounter works rooted in the avant-garde, and on the other, more current, experimental practices. That dialogue across time really resonates to me.
Unlike other art fairs, OFFSCREEN offers space for reflection. It doesn’t feel like a purely commercial venture. It’s guided by ideas and artistic intention. As a visitor or collector, you’re not bombarded by a thousand competing voices : you’re invited to engage more deeply with the work.
What do you think of Paris art scene ?
The Paris art scene feels incredibly dynamic right now, Over the past three years, I’ve felt a growing sense of internationalism and openness. It’s becoming increasingly welcoming, not just to artists, but to diverse perspectives and practices.
There’s so much happening that it’s impossible to take it all in and that’s exciting. It means the ecosystem is thriving.
What will be your next fairs ?
Next up for us is Art Basel Miami Beach, followed by ARCO Madrid. We haven’t made a final decision about Art Brussels yet.
What about the art market in Belgium ? Is it suffering ?
It’s hard for me to say definitively, since I don’t follow the data and analytics closely. But from what I see, new galleries are opening all the time, just as some are closing. There are more artists, more non-profit spaces, more foundations, and more players in general. So in that sense, I’d say the ecosystem feels quite healthy.
The art market is also a learning curve. Every ten years or so, there are waves of speculation. You grow, you adapt. Sometimes things slow down, other times they accelerate. In between, you just keep building on your momentum and your energy.
Practical Infos :
OFFSCREEN
Chapelle Saint-Louis de la Salpêtrière
October 21-26
Free entrance
https://offscreenparis.com/artists/marcin-dudek
Currently at the gallery :
Amélie Bouvier
Until December 13
Harlan Levey Projects
65 Rue Isidoor Teirlinckstraat, 1080 Brussels, Belgium
