The exhibition "Janet wants a yellow mango" presents the photographic practice of Jagoda Malanin, in which the medium of the image becomes a tool for exploring the tension between seeing and desire. It refers to the Lacanian objet petit a, the unattainable object of desire that organises the human gaze. The exhibition is accompanied by a curatorial essay and a guest object by Milena Soporowska.
Jagoda Malanin – visual artist and photographer. In her practice she takes up the themes of corporeality, what lies beneath the skin and survival, working mainly with photography and objects. In 2026 her series "Janet wants a yellow mango" earned her recognition as a Fresh Eyes Talent 2026 and invitations to publish from GUP Magazine, the publisher Ephemere Tokyo (curator Anne Murayama), Embryo Platform and Art-Icon, which invited her to take part in the exhibition "Love" (featuring Marina Abramović, Ai Weiwei and Roger Ballen; curators: Danila Tkachenko, Slavica Veselinović). A graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław and of Spanish philology at the Jagiellonian University, she has taken part in the mentoring programmes of Sputnik Photos, Image Threads, the Jastrzębie School of Documentary Photography and the Nikon-NOOR Academy programme in Warsaw. Winner of 3rd place at the Sony World Photography Awards 2023 for the series "Cryogenia". Her work has been shown in Poland and abroad, including in 2025 at the exhibition "Moje oczy zwodzą pszczoły" [My Eyes Deceive the Bees] at the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw (curators: Kamila Bondar, Łukasz Rusznica). Recipient of a grant from the "Networks" programme of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. She has published online in Der Greif (Germany), Abridged (Ireland) and Membrana (Slovenia), among others. Co-founder of the collective
Hydroza. Author of the photobook "Pamiętnik znaleziony w wannie" [Memoirs Found in a Bathtub].
From the curatorial essay:
We hunger. Suspended in the space between Janet's hand, stretched out into emptiness, and the glistening mango.
According to Lacan, the domain of seeing is directly integrated with the domain of desire. At the centre of the latter the French psychoanalyst placed lack. Identified with the so-called object little a [objet petit a], it is the unattainable object of desire. It is the afterimage of a tangible pleasure that we strenuously pursue.
Using the medium of photography, Jagoda Malanin follows this (un)pleasant (non-)presence. The eye slides over surfaces - both the warm and pulsating ones and the cold and unmoved ones. Just as the human gaze wanders around the trauma of the Real, so the camera lens circles the mythical pulp of the world. Where will this uncertain trail lead us?
(Fragment of the curatorial text "Miąższ świata" [The Pulp of the World] by Milena Soporowska.)
Curator: Milena Soporowska
Object: Milena Soporowska
Installation views
