The artist is interested in the social aspect of car ownership. Car corporations effectively work to ensure that their products raise status in the eyes of their owners and serve as an attribute of masculinity. The expensive and noisy car on the streets of Warsaw is for representation, and for many people, getting a driving licence is as much a rite of passage as a test of maturity. Toboła asks about the consumerist hedonism associated with car use: "Or are we already ultimately poisoned by smog, noise and aggression? We have simply given up. But maybe there is something out there for us. Maybe it's something pleasant or at least soothing. Something we know. Something that allows us to escape. Something that fills in the gaps. A lack of stability, prestige and dignity. Of subjectivity. Perhaps an underground car park veiled in exhaust smoke is paradise under certain conditions?"

Maria Toboła

Maria Toboła creates video, performance, installation, sculpture and poetry. She is a graduate of the University of Fine Arts in Poznań and an drop-out of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. A rapper, cook, creator of taste and style. In her works she playfully toys with convention, ironically taking it to the brink of absurdity. Her projects can be aptly described as silly and tasteless examples of conceptual art. She exhibits in Poland and abroad. Lives and works in Warsaw.