Maciej Skawinski
dal 26/2/2015 al 30/3/2015
Segnalato da
26/2/2015
Maciej Skawinski
Wroclaw Contemporary Museum MWW, Wroclaw
'A city' is not merely a simple space that could be reflected on a bigger map, where certain demographic processes occur or whose soaring roofs differentiate it from the 'boring' landscape of the countryside.
Curated by : Bartek Lis
A city is not merely a simple space that could be reflected on a bigger map, where certain demographic processes occur or whose soaring roofs differentiate it from the “boring” landscape of the countryside. A city is also a text. We learn to read it, we discover its grammatical rules and spelling. When approached from the social perspective, the cityscape becomes entangled and complicated. It is nowhere near as obvious as several decades ago.
Various orders and discourses leave their traces on urban tissue. The changes that the Polish society is constantly undergoing are particularly discernible in large agglomerations. The coexistence of the secular and the jingoistic, the hipster and the normcore, the affluent and the impoverished only became possible at a time of freedom. At the time after 1989, free from work and free from norms.
The aforementioned orders, or normative systems, clash in the cityscape, leaving a trail of “things”: crosses that do not commemorate plane crashes; rainbows that are set aflame; shop windows that offer a promise of a new and better world.
Maciej Skawiński takes photographs of the city and its orders or, as one might say, its “disorders”. He manages to capture and freeze the moment when small huge narratives are written.
Between 1995 and 2001, Skawiński combined his artistic interests with working as a professional photojournalist. His interest in the human being manifested itself in his numerous publications in dailies and magazines (Rzeczpospolita, Magazyn Gazety Wyborczej, Tygodnik Powszechny). He won many prizes at that time, including the World Press Photo Award (1998) and Picture of the Year in the Polish Press Photo Competition (2000).
In 2000, he created a photo project titled “Seeing Hearing Touching Knowing”. He also participated in a group exhibition together with Mikołaj Grynberg, Tomasz Gudzowaty, Chris Niedenthal, Wojciech Prażmowski and Andrzej Świetlicki.
Since 2001 he has been involved in creating the first Polish internet magazine on broadly understood reportage (www.dziennikarze-wedrowni.org). The magazine is a space of creative as well as professional and editorial work. It later became a forum for many artists who use text, image and sound. Skawiński continued to work as a photographer, preparing reportages from his journeys to Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, Russia, the RSA and, last but not least – Poland. He presented the effects of his work in numerous publications.
In 2004, as the only photographer from Poland, he participated in the exhibition “Fotokunst aus den zehn neuen EU-Landern” at Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin, showing his photo story about Poland.
In 2005, together with Lorne Liesenfeld, Chris Niedenthal, Tadeusz Rolke and Armand Urbaniak, he worked in France to make a documentary about bread, which was shown as a group exhibition at the Warsaw-based Synteza gallery in 2007.
In 2014, he received a scholarship of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage to make a photo documentary depicting the contemporary Poland.
Image: photo: Maciej Skawiński
Press Officer
Tomasz Ozog Mobile: +48 666 306 936 Phone: +48 71 356 42 67 t.ozog@muzeumwspolczesne.pl
Opening: 27/02/15, space around the winch, Urban Zone, 7:00 PM, admission free
Wrocław Contemporary Museum
pl. Strzegomski 2a
53-681 Wrocław
Poland