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2nd Exhibition of the Members of the Art and Documentation Association – a report
Anka Lesniak & Lukasz Guzek, 2013-03-03
On February 2nd, traditionally in the Wschodnia Gallery in Lodz, there was an opening of the second exhibition of the Art and Documentation Association. During the exhibition one could familiarise oneself with the activity of the Association and the individual works of its members including theoreticians of art. The exhibition was on till February 18th.
Józef Robakowski, Adam Klimczak, Jerzy Grzegorski and Tomasz Komorowski presented photographic works.
Józef Robakowski showed works made in a computer embroidery technique (2004), based on photographs taken in 1987 in Kleinsassen, where Gerard Jurgen Blum Kwiatkowski was active at that time. Because Robakowski was there for some time, he gained the trust of his “models” and therefore avoided the artificial poses that usually people adapt when they are being photographed. Smiling people look at us from the artworks –these are a few inhabitants of Kleinsassen. The series is entitled Ordinary Germans. It presented totally different Germans from the communist propaganda images, based on the World War 2 events.
Adam Klimczak presented the documentation of the action entitled Rummager which he performed at the Kinetic Light Art Festival in Lodz. The author of this documentation is Malgorzata Kruszyniak. At the exhibition there were three photographs. Each of them showed the artist holding spotlights and lighting the architectural elements of the interior of the building or in the yard. The action and the photographs are an example of the “city art” and a strong commentary to the city. They bring back the words from Tadeusz Kubiak’s verse: “I am a rat from a large city.”
Jerzy Grzegorski presented a photograph. A large elongated, horizontal photograph of an abstracted structure turned out, on a closer look, to be a fragment of a dirty floor. While it operates with recognition of a real object, it blurs the boundaries both with the observed world and painterly codes. Thus it succeeds to foreground the painterly element s in the reality that surrounds us.
Tomasz Komorowski made a large photograph of his life size naked body. The photo, however, was rendered unreal, a body here became a kind of a fluid structure, characteristic also for other Komorowski’s works. The image printed in sepia oscillated between a photography and an object. It was transferred into an irregular, wavy surface, which adds some extra aesthetic value.
Piotr Gajda and Gordian Piec (Restauracja Europa) made an installation entitled We have never looked into each others’ eyes for longer than 10 seconds. The installation came up based on a performance for camera, recording of which was a part of it. On the video, we saw both artists sitting opposite to each other and writing the title sentence on a pane of glass placed between them. In the gallery we saw the video from the action through that object.
Justyna Aulak and Katarzyna Ruszkowska showed an interactive work – net art, uploaded as a blog http://rouja.pl/blog/. The web address is an abbreviation of Polish words meaning UtopIa Resistance Movement. On the web site one can see a movie inspired by the Lodz newspapers headlines. The artists have correctly noticed, that news from Lodz is mostly about fraud, theft, attacks, murders and other form of evil. The video was divided into four parts. Headlines were contrasted with an image of fire and the Lodz landscape. Sound track was a quotation for the Apocalypse of St. John. The Biblical prediction of destruction seems to be adequate to the image of the city that comes out of media and that we in some part experience every day… It is possible to comment on posts on the web site.
Anka Leśniak presented a video entitled Say: performance art. It was made during the PAN ASIA 5 Performance Art Festival , which took place in 2012 in Seoul. The artist asked artists who participated in the festival to say “performance art” to the camera. The way of pronouncing, the artists’ expression made saying the word a performance in itself.
Aurelia Mandziuk completed a second part of the work entitled Hare Reenactement. The first was presented during the 4th Art and Documentation Festival. The artist undertook a game with the so called “reenactment” – a method of preserving ephemeral art by re-creating a given artwork or an artistic situation based on a questionnaire filled in either by the author or other people who could witness the artwork. Aurelia Mandziuk using this method did not re-create an artwork, but an object – a toy made by Katarzyna Kobro for her daughter – Nika Strzeminska. The reenactment was made in co-operation with Monika Krygier who was the latest owner of the toy. The hare still exists, but lost its legs. In the first part of her work, Aurelia Mandziuk made drawings – stencils based on which the toy can be re-made and in the second – she reconstructed the toy and the reconstruction could be seen during the exhibition.
An animal showed up also in the work by Izabela Robakowska A model of a monument of a White Bunny. The pedestal was made of her daughter’s blocks. The composition of the blocks reminds us of Architectons by Malevich or architectural projects by Strzeminski. On that pedestal stood the sculpture of a white bunny – which was also her daughter’s toy. This way from an everyday play with a child, raised an artistic work rooted in art history.
Norbert Trzeciak showed two paintings from 2012 entitled Lomza and Banana. Against the background of abstract structures appeared realistically painted fragments of reality that seemed to be cut out – for example a banana or a can of beer “Lomza”. The paintings join abstract painting with pop paintings in the style of Rauchenberg’s “combinations”.
Lukasz Guzek made another text based work. His first ones he made in the nineties. This time above the door of one of the rooms he put a banner: “We don’t see the wind, we see a waving flag”. The sentence can be interpreted in many ways, it can be associated with political or media strategies, but also with the art world.
During the exhibition it was possible to see the newest publications prepared by Ryszard W. Kluszczynski from his Project Art + Science Meeting, which took place in 2012 in CCA Laznia in Gdansk.
Alicja Cichowicz presented her latest text on Zygmunt Rytka entitled The nature of the world according to Zygmunt Rytka published in the Magazyn Sztuki journal (no. 02/01/2012).
The art opening was accompanied by a projection of a movie Ephemeral fixed. Ephemeral art – history documented – an event devoted to ephemeral art in Visegrad countries, organised by the Association as part of the 4th Art and Documentation Festival in 2012.
Despite the fact that the exhibition did not have a precise topic, two trends could be seen. One is the works referring to art itself as a kind of a message expressed in a given media and the other is the city of Lodz. It can also be seen that domains in which artists from the Association express themselves are mainly photography, video and performance art.
photos: Malgorzata Kruszyniak
Art & Documentation Association was founded in 2009 from the initiative of the organisers of the Art and Documentation Festival, which takes place every year in Lodz (Poland).
More about the festival at www.doc.art.pl
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