Sculpting Softness. The Revolution of Magdalena Abakanowicz

“The Abakan were a sort of bridge between myself and the outside world. I could create an atmosphere in which I felt safe because they were my world.” Polish, born in 1930, Magdalena Abakanowicz revolutionised the concept of sculpture. At the end of the 1960s, she created strange works in interwoven fibre, different from a tapestry or a traditional sculpture - six metres high, soft, organic, suspended in mid-air, they interacted with the space and spread the fragrance of the Earth around them. They soon became known as “Abakan”. Despite the limits imposed by the comunist regime, Abakanowicz rapidly made her way onto the international scene, opening the door for a new way of creating sculpture. Raised in rural Poland, she incorporated into her works themes like myth, folklore and the spirits of the forest, sources of inspiration for her magical atmospheres. At the Tate Modern, an exhibition offers the story and character of the Abakan with monumental installations, rare drawings by the artist and truly inhabitable environments. The theatre for this exhibition is the lengthy gallery of the Blavatnik Building, where sculptures of hemp, sisal and horsehair create imaginary landscapes. Rife with drama and evocative figures, the exhibition reveals the tie between the raw forms of the Abakan and the living material. “Everything that lives is made of fibre,” explains the artist, “the tissue of plants, leaves and ourselves. Our nerves, our genetic code, our veins, our muscles. We are fibrous structures.”