Placebo

Zbigniew Libera

  • type of object: sculpture
  • date: 1995
  • material/technique: 71 cardboard boxes with suppositories
  • dimensions: 1,2 x 6,4 x 8,9 cm x 71
  • inventory No.: RZ-42

Zbigniew Libera is concerned with the patterns of mass culture, methods of education and the manipulation of the perception of reality by the media. The sculpture Placebo (1995), presented in the artist’s solo exhibition at Zachęta in 2009, consists of 71 packages of a medication containing pure suppository mass. Libera ordered 550 packets of this product from a pharmaceutical factory. The packets look like real drugs, but a placebo is an inert substance that is designed to work by suggestion. The work ironically refers to the manipulation of the collective consciousness by the media and advertising. As Piotr Rypson wrote, Placebo is ‘a pseudo-product of the pharmacological empire of cures for everything: blood pressure, melancholy, psychedelic opening of the doors of perception’.


Other works by artist in the Zachęta collection

  • Zdjęcie pracy Freelancer (Self-portrait)
    Freelancer (Self-portrait)Zbigniew Libera2013
  • Zdjęcie pracy Lego. Concentration Camp
    Lego. Concentration CampZbigniew Libera1999
  • Zdjęcie pracy The Doll You Love To Undress
    The Doll You Love To UndressZbigniew Libera1997
  • Zdjęcie pracy Intimate Rites
    Intimate RitesZbigniew Libera1984
  • Zdjęcie pracy Jan Świdziński (Magazyn Gazety Wyborczej), from the series Masters
    Jan Świdziński (Magazyn Gazety Wyborczej), from the series MastersZbigniew Libera2003
  • Zdjęcie pracy Zofia Kulik (Na Dworze), from the series Masters
    Zofia Kulik (Na Dworze), from the series MastersZbigniew Libera2003
  • Zdjęcie pracy Andrzej Partum (Gazeta Wyborcza)
    Andrzej Partum (Gazeta Wyborcza)Zbigniew Libera2003
  • Zdjęcie pracy Incydent z Kantorem (Trybuna)
    Incydent z Kantorem (Trybuna)Zbigniew Libera2003
  • Zdjęcie pracy Leszek Przyjemski/Anastazy Wiśniewski (Polityka)
    Leszek Przyjemski/Anastazy Wiśniewski (Polityka)Zbigniew Libera2003

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    Untitled (Warswava)Pedro Cabrita Reis1998
  • Zdjęcie pracy Urns
    UrnsJózef Stasiński
  • Zdjęcie pracy Peasant Woman
    Peasant WomanZofia Albana Puget-Puszet