WITCH HUNT

WITCH HUNT. Witch Hunt is a series of paintings and collages by Mateusz Szczypiński devoted to the presence of superstitions, prejudices, and magical thinking in contemporary culture. In this body of work, the artist reflects on the paradox of modernity which—despite its declared faith in progress, science, and rationality—remains susceptible to archaic patterns of thought and atavistic forms of behavior.

The works juxtapose the visual language of contemporary culture with historical iconography related to witch hunts, constructing a narrative about the persistence of prejudice and mechanisms of exclusion. Magical thinking is presented as a phenomenon manifesting both in the form of social rituals and “traditions,” and in attitudes that generate fear, hatred, and distorted representations of reality.

A key motif of the series is the depiction of women, who appear in the roles of witches and sorceresses. These references combine historical imagery with the context of contemporary social events, pointing to the timeless nature of symbolic violence and the repetitive character of attitudes based on stigmatization and control. In this sense, the series engages with current social debates while maintaining the poetics of an oneiric, surreal narrative.

Witch Hunt is often interpreted as a continuation of the earlier series Utopia, in which the artist analyzed a dystopian image of society where progress and development function as a façade concealing primal instincts and tribal patterns. In the new series, this reflection is narrowed to specific motifs, situations, and visual codes connected to the themes of superstition and exclusion.