Ausnahmezustand. Polnische Fotokunst heute
State of Emergency. Polish Photo Art Today
The first exhibition, presenting such a broad overview of Polish contemporary photography in Germany.
Artists:
Filip Berendt, Kuba Dąbrowski, Karolina Gembara, Weronika Gęsicka, Aneta Grzeszykowska, Magda Hueckel, Pawel Jaszczuk, Irena Kalicka, Anna Kieblesz, Zuza Krajewska, Adam Lach & Dyba Lach, Diana Lelonek, Michał Łuczak, Rafał Milach, Igor Omulecki, Anna Orłowska, Witek Orski, Zosia Promińska, Agnieszka Rayss, Łukasz Rusznica, Michał Siarek, Michał Szlaga, Dominik Tarabanski, Łukasz Wierzbowski, Karolina Wojtas, Piotr Zbierski
Opening: Friday, 9 September 2022, 7 pm
Duration: 10 September 2022 – 1 January 2023
Location: ZAK – Center for Contemporary Art at Zitadelle Spandau
Am Juliusturm 64, 13599 Berlin
Fri. – Wed., 10am – 5pm, Thurs., 1pm – 8pm
Starting 10 September 2022, Berlin’s ZAK – Center for Contemporary Art at Zitadelle Spandau presents the group exhibition State of Emergency. Polish Photo Art Today. This fascinating look at contemporary photography in Poland presents 26 representatives of the younger and middle generation of Polish photographers and photo artists, many of whom are hardly known or entirely unknown in Germany. This should certainly not be the case, as visitors will discover. Along with several examples of aesthetically and formally innovative documentary photography, the multifaceted exhibition showcases portraits, self-portraits, still lifes, landscapes, and abstract photography. The works are not only shown in classical wall hangings but also as projections and object-like installations.
Notable examples include Strajk by Rafal Milach, documenting protests against abortion legislation passed in Poland in the late 2020s, which makes it virtually impossible for Polish women to have abortions in their own country. Another compelling work is Selfie by Aneta Grzeszykowska, who considers her own body by recreating parts of it out of pig skin. In images by Diana Lelonek from her recent book Wasteplants Atlas, the interdisciplinary artist examines and categorizes plant life growing on illegally dumped trash from the wealthy. Pawel Jaszczuk devotes his series ¥€$U$ to the commercialization of Jesus and Mary in his Catholic homeland.
A reading room with numerous photo books and catalogs by the exhibition participants and on related themes offers visitors the opportunity to delve even deeper into the Polish photo scene, which is gradually gaining a stronger international foothold.
The importance of this outward-looking engagement for Polish photographers becomes clear in the accompanying program of lectures and panel discussions. Held parallel to the exhibition, they address, among other things, the deteriorating working and exhibition conditions for creative professionals in Poland. Many photographers naturally address political topics in their work, such as measures introduced under the current national-conservative government, often in collaboration with members of the Catholic clergy, which weaken legal structures and stoke resentment against minorities such as non-European refugees and LGBT+ citizens, as well as growing nationalist rhetoric. These artists now risk being excluded from grants and other government support, as well as from exhibition opportunities in various government-subsidized museums and institutions.
This exhibition will be the largest show of Polish photography in Germany to date and intends to strengthen German-Polish relations. Germany’s interest in its eastern neighbor and its culture has grown in recent years – this exhibition aims to advance this development.
Curators:
Jens Pepper is a Berlin-based author, curator, and photographer. For his research on contemporary Polish photography, he spent almost two years in Warsaw in 2016/2017, visiting the country’s galleries, festivals, and collections, as well as numerous artists/photographers, curators, cultural editors, and collectors. One result of his research was the book Gespräche über polnische Fotografie (Talks about Polish photography), published by KLAK-Verlag, Berlin, in late-2017.
Grażyna Siedlecka is a curator, author, and founder of the Fresh From Poland Foundation. She has been researching the Polish photography scene and scouting emerging talents since 2013. Over the past few months, Siedlecka has been analyzing the influence structures within the Polish photography scene to identify figures who are setting new trends and inspiring others. The results of this investigation serve as a conceptual basis for the planned exhibition in Berlin.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a book of the same name published by Mitteldeutscher Verlag, with approximately 160 pages in German and English along with an insert in Polish. Price: 25 € (tbc)
Press contact:
DE & ENG – Nadine Dinter PR l Fasanenstrasse 70, 10719 Berlin
Mobile: +49 (0)151/123 70 951 l Email: presse@nadine-dinter.de
PL – Katarzyna Roniek | Email: contact@freshfrompoland.com
Fresh From Poland is proud to be the main press partner of the exhibition
Aneta Grzeszykowska – Selfie # 07 b, Courtesy of the Artist, Raster, Lyles and King Gallery
Pawel Jaszczuk, from the series YESYS , courtesy of 6×7 Leica Gallery, Warsaw
Rafał Milach, from the series Strike, 2020-2021, courtesy the artist and Jednostka Gallery, Warsaw
Kuba Dąbrowski, No Title, copyright Kuba Dąbrowski
Witek Orski, Postproduction, copyright Witek Orski
Zosia Promińska, Gabrysia 13, from the series Waiting Room, copyright Zosia Promińska
Igor Omulecki, Mikado #5, 2018, copyright Igor Omulecki
Anna Orłowska – Furnier 3, 2020, courtesy the artist and Gunia Nowik Gallery, Warsaw
Magda Hueckel, ADGA from the series Menady, 2020, courtesy the artist and JEDNOSTKA Gallery, Warsaw, copyright Magda Hueckel
Łukasz Wierzbowski, Not Title, copyright Łukasz Wierzbowski
Karolina Gembara, from the series Bow. Exercises in Hospitality, copyright Karolina Gembara
Anna Kieblesz – No Title , 2022, copyright Anna Kieblesz
Michał Łuczak, Emil, from the series Extraction, 2017 copyright Michał Łuczak
Karolina Wojtas, from the series We can’t live without each other, 2019, copyright Karolina Wojtas
Filip Berendt – HEAD 8, from the series Head cooked in the pudding, copyright Filip Berendt
Irena Kalicka -No title, from the series The horse you see is the horse you get (New Athens), 2015, copyright Irena Kalicka
Agnieszka Rayss, Landscapes with war, copyright Agnieszka Rayss
Adam and Dyba Lach, from the series “How to Rejuvenate an Eagle, copyright Adam und Dyba Lach
Dominik Tarabański, from the series Roses for mother, courtesy the artist and 6×7 Leica Gallery, Warsaw
Diana Lelonek, from the series Center for living things, copyright Diana Lelonek
Weronika Gęsicka – Untitled #2, from the series Smash, 2019 – 2020, courtesy the artist and JEDNOSTKA Gallery, Warsaw
Łukasz Rusznica, No title, 2016, from the series Subterranean River, copyright Łukasz Rusznica
Michał Siarek, Elvegard #3, aus der Serie Peak of eternal light, 2019, copyright Michał Siarek
Piotr Zbierski, Installation „Solid bars of all that is left untold”, Fotofestiwal in Lodz 2021, copyright Piotr Zbierski
Michał Szlaga, Polska, copyrights Michał Szlaga
