Recent years are surely to enter the annals of Polish art history as a turning point in artistic production. It is a turning point related to the ascendance of a new generation of artists born in the 70s, a definitive shift in emphasis from analogue to digital techniques and the continued rapid development of electronic media and the illustrated press. The most interesting change, which occurred and continues to occur before our eyes, is a change in what John Berger referred to as 'Ways of Seeing.' The Red Eye Effect. Polish photography in the 21st-century presents the achievements of young and middle-aged photographers to describe the directions of development of visual culture in Poland. Controversial and even scandalous press images, photographs by amateurs and those found on the Internet supplement the redefinition occurring in recent years in photography - once referred to as artistic, documentary and commercial (fashion and advertising). Numerous screenings, art books and even sculptures (Anna Baumgart) or installations (Anna Orlikowska) mean the exhibit diverges from those of the past that remain fixated on the photographic image. Through clear thematic separation of the collected materials, the sequences of images coalesce into a meaningful whole, to show how 'powerful' photography can be in the hands of contemporary artists. The exhibition includes the most acclaimed works of artists like Maurycy Gomulicki and Aneta Grzeszykowska, as well as new but unknown pieces by critically acclaimed artists such as Wilhelm Sasnal, Zbigniew Rogalski and Agnieszka Brzeżańska.
The exhibition will be augmented by images culled by Homeless Gallery (Galeria Bezdomna) that will open its doors to any willing photographers from 23 August - 1 September 2008 in the Castle's Cellar.
Artists: Michael Akerman, Wojciech Albiński, Grupa Azorro, Anna Baumgart, Jakub Bąkowski, Anna Bedyńska, Agata Bogacka, Karolina Breguła, Agnieszka Brzeżańska, Dorota Buczkowska, Aleksandra Buczkowska, Rafał Bujnowski, Hubert Czerepok, Oskar Dawicki, Kuba Dąbrowski, Marta Deskur, Mikołaj Długosz, Andrzej Dragan, Jan Dziaczkowski, Sławomir Elsner, Mariusz Forecki, Maurycy Gomulicki, Nicolas Grospierre, Aneta Grzeszykowska, Karol Hordziej, Elżbieta Jabłońska, Rafał Jakubowicz, Elżbieta Janicka, Aldona Kaczmarczyk, Mikołaj Komar, Barbara Konopka, Katarzyna Korzeniecka, Tomasz Kozak, Krzysztof Kozanowski, Katarzyna Kozyra, Magda Krajewska, Zuzanna Krajewska i Bartek Wieczorek, Bogdan Krężel, Robert Kuśmirowski, Dominik Lejman, Zbigniew Libera, Ewa Łowżył, Magdalena Łuniewska, Małgorzata Markiewicz, Przemysław Matecki, Rafał Milach, Chris Niedenthal i Tadeusz Rolke, Dorota Nieznalska, Paulina Ołowska, Igor Omulecki, Anna Orlikowska, Maciej Osika, Oiko Petersen, Krzysztof Pijarski, Przemysław Pokrycki, Radek Polak, Jacek Poremba, Marta Pruska, Maria Przybysz, Konrad Pustoła, Karol Radziszewski, Zbigniew Rogalski, Szymon Rogiński, Robert Rumas, Daniel Rumiancew, Tomek Saciłowski, Wilhelm Sasnal, Jan Simon, Jan Smaga, Barbara Sokołowska, Maciek Stępiński, Przemysław Stoppa, Michał Szlaga, Grzegorz Sztwiertnia, Andrzej Tobis, Łukasz Trzciński, Piotr Uklański, Artur Wesołowski, Monika Wiechowska, Wojciech Wieteska, Wojciech Wilczyk, Julita Wójcik, Magda Wuensche, Wojciech Zasadni, Albert Zawada, Krzysztof Zieliński, Ireneusz Zjeżdżałka, Zorka Project.
Cooperation: Adam Mickiewicz Institute, TNS OBOP
Curator: Adam Mazur
Collaboration: Magdalena Majewska
Exhibition design: Katarzyna Korzeniecka
21 June - 7 September 2008
Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle
Jazdów 2, 00-467 Warsaw
director: Wojciech Krukowskitel. (+48 22) 628 76 83, 628 12 71-3, 628 64 08
fax (+48 22) 628 95 50
link*www.csw.art.pl*http://www.csw.art.pl****