The curator of the exhibition, Doug Eklund, calls Uklański the master of provocation, someone who likes to push the boundaries and who knows that this is how one gains attention in contemporary culture.
He wants to provide us with entertainment, but at the same time, he wants us to understand how photographs and images function in culture. He recalls the horrific Nazi crimes which have been caricaturised and asks, whose fault is this? I think that Uklański’s art also refers to the cynicism of our times. We’re aware that we’re being manipulated, and Uklański handles that in the category of emotions. (…) He transfers it into the world of art and tells us that we should protect ourselves from it
– judged Elkund.
The second exhibition – Fatal Attraction: Piotr Uklański Selects from the Met Collection – includes more than 60 photographs and 20 other works. It illustrates the contradicting powers that find a common voice in art: eros, the sexual instinct, and thanatos – the instinct of death. The artist leaves the distinctly pornographic approach in favour of a deeper and poetic representation of the two topics.
The artist doesn’t agree with the statement that he intentionally makes his art shocking.
I don’t create with an intention to provoke. I’m not inserting dynamite into a can and I don’t press a button. However, by using images that resonate in our culture, one has to expect various reactions, that the viewer brings in with his knowledge, culture, intellect. The same work can awaken different aftershocks in Poland than it would, for example, in Germany or Brazil.
– Uklański explained.
He also spoke about symbols in his works. He’s mostly intrigued by those with multiple meanings:
An eagle is a symbol, that we all invest in, like in the pope. On the other hand – there’s the Nazis.
Uklański wants to create works of art with a potential for various interpretations as the time passes:
If something is literally closed in its frames then it makes it a very limited option. I believe that pieces of art are alive as long as they have the potential to be read anew.
– he concluded.