Mariusz Waras, also known as m-city, is one of the icons of global street-art. This versatile artist, author of some seven hundred murals in more than forty countries, prepared two spatial installations as part of the 25th anniversary of the Laznia CCA.
The first work has been placed on a steel frame in the courtyard of CCA Laznia 2 in New Port, while the second is hanged on the facade of Laznia 1 in Lower Town.
Both works are an impression about LAZNIA as a phenomenon of a place that, while changing its function in the utilitarian dimension, retains it in the social dimension. In accordance with the artist's concept, the historical concept of the Bathhouse building and its architectural details as well as the original connotations of the bathhouse with physical culture, sports and the body found reference here. The equivalence of body culture and spirit culture in this situation is the connection between the former hygienic place and the contemporary art institution.
Mariusz Waras - born in 1978 in Gdynia, PhD, currently employed as a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk, where he runs the Street Art Studio at the Faculty of Architecture and Design, majoring in Architecture of Cultural Spaces. In addition to his academic work, he is involved in graphic design, creating spatial installations and large-format painting. It is as the creator of murals, in particular the early project 'M-city' - which has become, so to speak, his stylistic calling card - that Mariusz Waras is now recognized as one of the world's most important street-art artists. From the beginning he built his works around urban aesthetics, using architectural motifs, industrial infrastructure - including shipbuilding, means of transportation. The style, though evolving, remains graphically modest and blunt. In the midst of initially dehumanized landscapes and machines in production and destruction, playing with the unlimited possibility of compilation in an ever-expanding lexicon of elements, space began to appear for statements of personal reflections, manifestos, sometimes taking the form of a succinct commentary on current events. He also curates art exhibitions and events. Co-founder of the think tank POGODA, which deals with the management of culture in the broadest sense. Since 2018, he has curated the Dictator Art Masters festival held at a distillery in the Colombian jungle. The site is periodically visited by the world's leading artists in street art, urban art and contemporary art. Currently, together with the Dictador brand, he is the author of the NFT collection at ArtHouse Spirits DAO and the author of the "M-city Golden Cities" edition bottle sold for $1.5 million.