The Barycz triptych refers in its form to the tilting bed of a dump truck. Closed, it remains relatively neat; opened, its hatch drips with filth all the way to the floor. The artist grew up in proximity to the municipal landfill (or “barycz”); all of the trash produced in Kraków was carried in these trucks to the surroundings of the city. As a child, the artist and his friends would play in the barycz, digging through the refuse for discarded treasures. Often, when a new truck would arrive, the children would not wait for it to unload its contents; unable to contain their excitement, they would climb up into the lorry as it tilted and spilled its load.

Like the children in Dudek’s memory, the storks in Barycz inhabit this wasteland with a transcendent joy. They fly through the garbage projectiles, dancing through splashes and drips. Dudek credits this early experience as playing a formative part in his visual language: what is a landfill, if not a large-scale collage? Those who are raised in this geography of neglect may have the sense to see its beauty.