Even though the minimalist, almost abstract images may act as screens open to unrestrained, almost mystical interpretations, the artist referred to his pieces in a very concrete manner:
One of the first photographs in The Secret Performance series shows an object lying on a PVC floor. Its arms are perpendicular, and the vertex of one touches the other arm in the middle. The whole thing is diagonal to the composition’s vertical axis. The vertical element is blurry – it was in motion. I took the photo at 7.30 pm on 20 June, 1983. Exposure time was five minutes, with an aperture of 22. I used a black-and-white 100 ASA film.
This is typical of the artist, who used to call himself an “ex-painter” and who, influenced by conceptual art, began to base his practice on photography. Smoczyński manifested extreme precision when producing his direct-to-camera performances: from the moment of arranging the space, through releasing the shutter, to the final stage of printing (all of which he carried out on his own). In spite of the title of this flagship series, Smoczyński never was or felt like a performance artist.
I never found in myself enough courage or the special kind of shamelessness that is necessary to appear before an audience.
– he declared, adding that he used the word “performance” in the title in order to “signal the element of action inherent in the images” and preceded it with “secret,” because his actions were “always only for the camera. They were experienced by only one [man]. And so the photographs are my only proof that they have taken place at all.” The show taking place at Zana 11 may be compared to some projects created in the 1980s within the framework of elementary photography, practiced by, for example, Wojciech Zawadzki (the Olszewskiego 11 series).
It is also hard to avoid references to the tradition of atelier painting , or to series of photographs taken at studios, darkrooms, or photographers’ apartments, exercised by such innovators as Nicéphore Niépce, Jacques-Louis-Mandé Daguerre, or Henry Fox Talbot, to whom Smoczyński felt particularly close. The photographs also bring to mind Man Ray and his collaborations with Marcel Duchamp, or the Czech master Josef Sudek.