Marek Piasecki, untitled, photograph, the late 1950s. Photo: press materials
The exhibition questions the existence of a Surrealist movement in Poland comparable to the ones initiated in France, Czech Republic or Mexico during the interwar period. Did such a movement exist and what effect would it have had on Polish artists in socialist times?
The exhibition has been organised on the occasion of the biennial "Month of Photography" ("Mois de la Photo") event inaugurated in 1980, which transforms the city of Paris into the photography capital of the world for the entire month of November.
According to the curators of the exhibition, there was never a Surrealist movement as such in Poland, neither during the inter-war years nor after 1945. Nevertheless, certain strategies used by the Surrealists in cities like Paris and Prague in the 1920s and 1930s helped the Polish photographic scene make its greatest strides towards a modern conception of the image after the Second World War. In a post-war cultural context first dominated by pictorialist aesthetics, then influenced by Socialist Realism, and finally polarised by propaganda driven photo reportage, the Polish avant-garde sought and experimented for decades to reclaim a place in the field of photographic art. In that quest they used various techniques (such as photomontage, chemical experiments, re-appropriation of images) and operational modes ruling in Surrealist groups (such as set design or "flaneries"). What was at stake there in Communist Poland was of course not only artistic, but also existential and political: the goal of re-investing the field of art via Surrealist visual poetics meant nothing less than re-investing reality itself.
The exhibition "La photographie en Pologne communiste: un esprit surréaliste?" is intended as an account designed as a historical journey that focuses on three key periods in the country's history: the late 1940s just before the Stalinist period, the thaw that occurred around 1956, and the late 1970s leading up to the Solidarity era.
The selection from the Asymetria Gallery in Warsaw is composed of vintage photographs by iconic names in the Polish scene as well as recently discovered artists. Comprised in a timeframe between the Interwar and the late 1970s, the exhibition gathers 7 photographers who fought for their emancipation from the oppressive aesthetics imposed by the Communist Regime. It features photographs by some of the chief representatives of the Polish photographic avant-garde including: Zdzisław Beksiński, Zbigniew Dłubak, Jerzy Lewczyński, Marek Piasecki, Andrzej Strumiłło, Zofia Rydet and Wojciech Zamecznik.
The symbolic patron for this collective presentation exhibition is Józef Jan Głogowski (1893-1969), a pictorialist photographer who immortalised and documented for over a decade in the 1920s the leading and mythic figure of Polish avant-garde Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz's grimaces.
After 1945, the young generation was trying to establish a modern formula for photography. Zbigniew Dłubak (1927-2005) was notable for his photo-macrographies presenting plants or utilitarian objects from everyday life, composed as to create a free game of visual and semantic connotations. This series of Surrealist works, along with an other cycle created in the 1980s are presented in the exhibition at Paris Photo.
A major figure of the Polish artistic scene, Jerzy Lewczyński (born 1924) debuted his career after the era of Socialist Realism in 1948. The Asymetria Gallery chose to present a comprehensive palette embracing his most notable works in three series: "Photo Theatre" (1959), "Subjective Photography" (1956-1962) and "Negatives" (1979) - all three cycles presents the photographer's fascination for a poetry of the ordinary and the found object, relating to the themes of Surrealism.
Graphic artist and poster designer Wojciech Zamecznik started as soon as in 1949 to use photography as the primary basis for his graphic work. In 1959, he began experimenting on more personal and intimate themes presented exclusively by the Asymetria Gallery.
Revolving in the field of abstract photography in the middle of the political and cultural thaw of the 1950s, Marek Piasecki (born 1953), a prominent figure of artistic avant-garde also started a career as a photo reporter. The gallery presents a selection of his documentary photographs in which blurring effects, tight framing, or melees with motifs demonstrate a real aim for formal experimentation.
Artist Krzysztof Vorbrodt (1929-2001) was discovered by the Asymetria Gallery. The trained biologist got involved in professional micro and macroscopic and created a series of photomontages in 1969, somewhere between the test of Rorschach and optical art, called Symetriades.
Zofia Rydet (1911-1997), one of the most prominent women artists in Polish photography, created a long series of photo-collages entitled "The World of Emotions and Imagination" (1975-1979). The compositions in this cycle, built through the prism of introspective visions, present the different steps (motherhood, aging) and emotional states (solitude, abandon, loss) a woman goes through in her lifetime. The gallery chose a few representative pieces of her work such as "Longings", "Obsessions" and "Mannequins".
Created in 1980, the biennale Month of Photography takes place November, and relies on the significant involvement of many cultural institutions and galleries in Paris. Each edition of the Month of Photography is devoted to a particular theme and features dozens of exhibitions as well as screenings, events and public discussions.
For its 30th anniversary, the current edition Month of Photography 2010 focuses on the collection at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie. Themed or monographic sets of pictures from the collection are chosen in collaboration with the curators from participating museums, cultural centres and galleries and shown either alone or in parallel with other public or private Paris collections.
"Paris Collects" ("Paris collectionne") is an opportunity to showcase parts of the rich collections of photographs held in Paris and to reflect upon how art collections are created thanks to a combination of passion, discipline, and a thirst for meaning.
The exhibition and accompanying events are organised by the Polish Institute in Paris (Institut Polonais), the exhibition "La photographie en Pologne communiste: un esprit surréaliste?" is hosted by the Baudoin Lebon Gallery, in collaboration with the Asymetria Gallery and the Archaeology of Photography Foundation in Warsaw.
Curators: Patrick Komorowski and Rafał Lewandowski.
Exhibition runs October 28 - December 4, 2010.
- Galerie Baudoin Lebon
38 rue Sainte Croix de la Bretonnerie
75004 Paris
tel. (+33) 01 42 72 09 10
www.baudoin-lebon.com
Source: www.institutpolonais.fr