Chemistry from Germany - Gosia Kulik
Attention, we have a second edition, reprint 2022!!!
The enemy is the enemy, history is history, Hitler is Hitler, but chemistry has to be German. Everyone will willingly bow to such Germanization, and Vanish aus Deutschland will cleanse their betrayal-stained honor! I myself buy these powders, pastes, floor cleaners, and those Fairy dishwashing liquids that foam like the raging waves of the Rhine, so I know what I'm talking about!
25 pln = German Vizir color, 11 washes
25 pln = German Domestos XXL
25 pln = half a kilogram of pickled kale, chopped with carrots and garlic and 3 pickled pears ;-)
Gosia Kulik
I am not sure whether chemicals from Germany are only a Polish phenomenon, but the scale of this phenomenon certainly goes beyond purely hygiene issues.
Is it really about a better formula that removes stains from colored trousers more efficiently, the composition of detergents, or the foaminess of granules and bath gels?
Perhaps chemicals from Germany, as a symbol of higher quality products, are also a sign of peripheral complexes?
Maybe the Vizir from the trunk and the Lenor from the camp bed have a taste of luxury, of fulfilled ambitions to own something better?
Maybe obtaining a drug with a "unique formula", which is not available in an "ordinary store", has the character of an adventure, a conspiracy, a specific kind of contraband?
All these associations, questions, and thoughts came to mind when I picked up Gosia Kulik's zine. "Chemistry from Germany" is a sensitive, devoid of patronizing tone, sociological portrait inspired by scenes from Wrocław's local Targ Na Młynie (Mlyn Market). The author has been making pilgrimages there for years, drawing on her observations for her drawings and shopping. And recently, she's also been... trading there!
Author: Gosia Kulik
Title: Chemistry from Germany
Circulation: 100 copies
Format: 137/199 mm
Print: Riso (black, blue, pink, yellow)
Pages: 24
Binding: stitched
Year of first release: 2020
Second edition: 2022