Po l a n d
Together again?
by Marek Grygiel
The exhibition so entitled should answer this question. Neither the question nor the answer will be unequivocal - as is the equivocal situation of art photography in the so called former socialist countries. Nevertheless the photographic works of artists from Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia will enable us to develop at least a fragmentary idea as to the direction of explorations undertaken by photographers of the middle and young generati- ons from these countries. We can discover if they share some common topics and if they look for their inspirations in the same phenomena of political and social transformations of the last decade.
In Poland the current of documentary and social photography has weakened significantly and has been absorbed completely by press photography. This happened as a result of the abolition of censorship and rapid development of a high circulation press, especially illustrated magazines. Thus, photographers do not have to be involved directly in relating the difficulties of economical and social transformations - they may now concentrate rather on their own problems, reaching out to general human topics of existential dimensions. They can define their own standpoint in a world changing so rapidly; they may allow themselves to be seduced by the sheer beauty of the world - to describe their distant journeys, their enchantment with a beauty of untainted natu- re or their astonishment with different cultures and customs; or they may simply give unleash their imagination and create a microcosm of their own.
All these three elements may be found in the works of the three Polish artists.
Maurycy Gomulicki, in his series "Sentimental Typologies," is interpreting a cultural phenomenon of dummies. Many artists have long been aware of these anthropomorphic figures ago, and this time "with their dubious charm, dummies seduced Maurycy G. In Mexico City, D.F. in a uniform shop in Insurgementes Street on March 1st, 1998 an artificial dummy, devoid of natural grace of gesture and movement, can only seduce with a detail since it can- not seduce with its entire self. So there is a nose and lips, slightly parted, proud, there is the cool and absent look, there is the color, and, paradoxically, there is the ever present imperfection."* Mexican dummies remind us of Bruno Schulz's prose. Gomulicki, like this renowned writer from Drohobycz, creates a dense atmosphere of meanings, trying to represent the mood of mystery and of the ambiguity of forms and shapes.
The landscape has become the main element of Kostas Kiritsis' work. He looks for his motifs both in towns and in nature. He is fascinated with the material substance of dwelling blocks in huge urban settlements built mainly during the last few decades. These settlements were made of prefabricated concrete panels, where complete unification not only added to the devastation of the environment but also dehumanized the links between man and his surroundings. On the photograph-constructions by Kiritsis we can see faded phantom facades completely filling the horizon, as if they were sprouting one from another or mirroring their facades, lacking any distinguishing features. The series of pictures taken from a speeding train may be seen as an attempt to escape this world of desolation. But the question is if the artist will succeed in his escape, if what we see from behind the window is much different from what we have to live in. Certainly, from time to time there is some tree looming, there are farmsteads, but shortly after we are being taught again "the constant lesson of a landscape" dominated by the huge buildings with monotonous arrays of window-holes reminding us of a science-fiction nightmare. And when finally we reach the goal of our journey and enter into strange woods and marshes, into some trees and tufts of grass, then everything seems to be a kind of a remote dream, shining with the midday sun, reflected in water circles that move away.
There are no people in these pictures - there is the emptiness of a space and homesickness. But the most recent series of photographs, fastened toget- her to make a book whose pages the viewer can turn, is filled to the brim with people. This series is called "Beyond horizon", a report from the artist's journey to Mongolia. Over there, in endless steppes, Kiritsis finds the threads already lost in our latitudes. And he finds people, too. He immortalizes them like a press photographer, meeting them in casual encounters in steppe, in their dwellings and cars, dressed in authentic costumes, on horseback hunting or just for pleasure. These copper-tinted pictures reveal vital force. Their horizon, in spite of being only an extract, almost an impression of a distant country, is much more complete and rich. No longer does it contain the almost abstract emptiness and monotony of landscapes of the great cities which usually are so very much alike.
Perhaps Kostas has found beyond the horizon something he is lacking here in Warsaw or in New York where he has recently lived. Such a search, when transposed into photographs contained in books**, becomes a record, preserving the place we happen to live in despite our inability to change the image we have of its existence.
It is very likely that the photographs of Pawel Zak are made beyond time. Thus, at the very beginning an element inherent in photography - recording old time - is being questioned.
Looking at these pictures does not give us any hint as to when they could be made, although their sepia tone directs our impressions towards the distant past. But perhaps it is some ruse that the artist uses to cover up tracks that would lead to some starting point. Actually, Pawel is not interested in what seems to be attributed to photography - recording of some more or less important moments of our lives. Pawel Zak creates a world of his own which he appropriates into his photography by means of a few elements. In this world of pure pictorial poetry there are no computers or hi-tech cameras - all that technological tumult. The individual photographs are marked with great restraint and elegance, reminding us of rare graphic prints. Sometimes fruits emerge from these photographic pictures, fruits so very realistic that they are hard to recognize (a fragment of an apple, a pear). These fruits are juxtaposed in geometrical configurations with stone, sand, or pieces of wood. These apparently static compositions create a scene of very delicate tensi- ons. They differentiate between the transience of living things and something that seems to be eternal.
Some scenes force us to think about an hourglass with grains of sand running down, lighted by a veiled sun which is being carried away to the other world. There is a mysticism of seclusion and mystery.
The other group of photographs deals with the world of artificial toys for children; plastic horses, teddy bears, rubber dolls, pigs, little horses. Sometimes they are in strange mysterious configurations forming animal pyramids - a motif so readily employed recently in contemporary art; Another time these toys are an element of the whole composition simultaneously underlining their strongly individual character. Adequately exposed in their confrontation with other objects they become individualized and defend themselves against a hasty unification. Perhaps in different situations we would not notice them at all. The whole world contained in the "archeological" pictures of Pawel Zak reminds us of the world of childhood. Nevertheless it also accumulates some mysteries which we perhaps never will be able to uncover - even in our fully adult life.
All three artists have interpreted three different areas: Maurycy Gomulicki was attracted by a world of material culture that surrounds us; Kostas Kiritsis is interested in landscape and the environment we live in; and Pawel Zak has disclosed to us intimate world of imagination he has created. Are these atti- tudes close to each other, do they relate unanimously problems of the place we live in? I don't think so. They are of a more general character and they reach beyond any definite territories. They go beyond time, too. So the question if we are "together again?" acquires an additional meaning - yes, maybe together but in quite a different and much larger a sense than ten years ago. For no one enters the same river twice in the same time and in the same place.
This centuries old adage is about our whole life, so it is about photography too.
Marek Grygiel
* Piotr Rypson in the catalogue of Maurycy Gomulicki's exhibition "Sentimental Typologies", Mala Gallery ZPAF-CSW, Warsaw, January 1999.
** Kostas Kiritsis has for some time produced series of photographs which can both be hung on walls or presented in a form of so-called photographic books. The artist glues big photographs together to transform them into individual pages, and then puts the finished books on the tables to make them easily available. Kostas Kiritsis' works at his previous exhibition in Mala Gallery ZPAF-CSW in Warsaw were presented in this way. The present exhibition is also comprised partly of books made in a similar way and using the same technique.
Galleri Image ©1999 Toldbodgade 8, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark.
