Monika Sosnowska was born in 1972 in Ryki, Poland. Sosnowska witnessed the change of Poland’s political system from Communism to Democracy, and the heavy impact this had upon society and her environment. Her sculptural language emerges from a process of experimentation with, and the appropriation of construction materials such as steel beams, concrete, reinforcing rods and pipes. These elements – the solid and rigid foundations of buildings – are manipulated and warped, taking on an independence in which their former functionality is implied yet defunct. In 2003, she achieved international renown with her work The Corridor, an intervention that formed part of the Arsenal exhibition of the 50th Venice Biennale. Four years later, Sosnowska represented Poland at the 52nd Venice Biennale with the monumental installation ‘1:1’. The almost organic construction of steel beams she created was intended to exhibit the Polish Pavilion itself. Using parts of the building’s infrastructure, Sosnowska occupied the entire space with a second architectural structure on the inside. 1:1 not only reflects the architecture of many of the Venetian pavilions, but at the same time, brings to the fore the global discourse on functionality, in a marked departure from modernism’s preoccupation with style.