Soon_

The SOON_ project is inspired by the book General Trade Index & Business Foundation Book Poland (1994), which documents the transformations of the post-socialist transition. Drawing on the corporate advertising aesthetics of the 1990s, the project uses typography to construct an image of rising skyscrapers. New office buildings and billboards became symbols of aspiration and development, introducing the language of marketing into the urban landscape and defining a new aesthetic based on visibility and success. The project also refers to image-building strategies that, in 1990s Poland, began to permeate both the business world and popular culture.

 

A contemporary icon of self-promotion, Kim Kardashian—particularly her 1994 recording in which she announces her future fame, declaring “Everyone loves me! I’m so popular!”—symbolises the emergence of a culture of self-promotion and the performance of success. These words directly inspired the title of the project, which analyses contemporary forms of status-building.

 

The site-specific installation is embedded within the architecture of the Spectra building—a contemporary counterpart to spaces of success and business strategy. A billboard featuring a star-rating system refers to rankings and evaluation scales that, in the 1990s, spread from hotels and restaurants to measures of brand value and social position. These mechanisms shaped a model of success based on the management of one’s own image.

 

An important element of the installation is interactive evaluation: viewers can cast votes via QR codes, becoming part of the narrative surrounding the artist’s visibility. A starting block, functioning as a podium and borrowed from the world of sports arenas, is placed within the sphere of business, where strategies of recognition and visibility play a dominant role. “SUCCESS” is not merely a message, but a deliberate gesture of occupying space—a manifestation of a long-term vision and the need to solidify one’s presence. Reserving the project’s site is not a temporary act, but a lasting embedding within the art world, where status is determined by mechanisms of visibility and self-presentation.

 

Daga Urman is a visual artist working with objects and installations. She is a student of Media Art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and a graduating MA student this year in the studios of Dr Dorota Kozieradzka, Prof. Sławomir Ratajski, and Dr hab. Maryna Tomaszewska. She also studies at the Interdepartmental Studio of Activities led by Prof. Mirosław Bałka and Dr hab. Katarzyna Krakowiak-Bałka. She previously completed studies in Fashion Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź. She lives and works in Warsaw.