The Voice of Leda

The Voice of Leda invites viewers to look anew at the ancient Greek myth of Leda and the Swan, and to view Leda’s story through a more contemporary understanding of the experiences of women. Wioletta Kulewska Akyel, whose work spans large-scale painting, installation, and mural-making, abstracts the imagery within this inherently violent myth, in order to explore its relationship with the present day.

Taking Michelangelo Buonarroti’s Leda and the Swan-part of the MUŻA collection-as a starting point, Kulewska Akyel shifts the focus from Zeus’s power to Leda’s feminine strength, and to the experience and emotion of the moment. The shifting forms and colours within her paintings exude a meaning and feeling that surpass simple story-telling, and enable a shift in our understanding of myth-making.