Dziękując za duszę i błyskawicę
Thanking for the Spirit and Lightning

Summary/Abstract: In Jewish Shabbat, holiday, and daily liturgy “thank you” and “may you be blessed” appear next to each other and essentially express the same. Gratitude, blessing, and adoration are articulated in one breath. Blessings praise the Creator for the origin of the world together with all its elements, from the cosmos to the slightest plant. Even mundane details deserve to be appreciated. Here is my favourite example from a morning prayer: “Blessed […] who gives the rooster understanding to distinguish between day and night”. Just like in Grajmy Panu (Let Us Play for the Lord), a song by Agnieszka Osiecka: “Oh, You, who is watching the poor houses of snails / and the great mountains of both Americas […] Thank You for giving us the time”. Words oreseen by the ritual are reflected in ritual art: the decoration of objects made of silver, fabrics, verses painted on the walls and vault of synagogues. I follow this trail in my cut-out collages inspired by the heritage of the old Jewish cut-out and more widely – by visual tradition, in which the word and the image merge and intertwine, and the letter is used as plastic arts matter. This phenomenon is illustrated by presented works containing thanksgiving blessings alive in liturgy.

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