One of the characteristic features of contemporary culture is the constant development of a field of phenomena produced as a result of the inertia of artistic media, the blurring of boundaries between them, and their mutual interplay. At the same time, spectators take on the role of artists increasingly easily, entering into a complex network of reactions to stimuli provided by objects of culture. Today we are both witnessing and actively contributing to the acceleration and fragmentation of the system of culture.
This exhibition at the Archeology of Photography Foundation focuses on selected customary ways of depicting “free time” in the 20th-century private photography. Family albums, negatives and slides—loans brought together by the Foundation—reveal a diverse image of this phenomenon.
You is a young female or a young male. Me is a young male or a young female. Things is the world that surrounds them, and of which they dream. Things describe and define them. They make them happy and ensnare them. They let them dream, but also deprive them of their dreams. Things are the third element in the love game between You and Me—a game that takes place in the interiors of modern homes and on the pages of modern magazines…
In the years 1930-1952, Serving as the inspector of the Warsaw University Botanic Garden, Roman Kobendza, Sc.D. systematically photographed groups of plants in successive sections of the Garden. The resulting negatives, each labeled with the name of the species and a date, amassed in several boxes marked with an almost calligraphic writing, represent a contemporary herbarium. The reasons behind Kobendza’s project, however, remain unclear.
We would like to bring to your attention a film by Krzysztof Pijarski, which documents conversations about photography with Jerzy Lewczyński. The film is part of the exhibition Playing the Archive Game currently on show at Galeria Asymetria.
Since 29 August we’ve moved to a new address at Andersa Street 13, having secured the larger and better-available space through a competition held by the Warsaw Śródmieście district council. Besides office and archive space, the new premises will also house the Foundation’s gallery. We’ll post more info on the gallery’s inauguration and program soon.
A new Living Archives project is soon to be unveiled. This time displayed in Warsaw public space will be Karolina Breguła’s Corrective Photographs – urban wallpapers created using images from the Zofia Chomętowska archive. The project will be on show from 14 September through 3 October. The opening reception, accompanied by an exhibition explaining the project’s background and the opening of the Foundation’s new premises, will take place on 23 September from 17.00 to 22.00 as part of the event Where Is Art?
We are pleased to announce a promotional event for the photo-book Zofia Chomętowska. Polesie. Photographs from 1925-1939, which will take place at Klub/Księgarnia Wrzenie Świata, Gałczyńskiego Street 7, on Wednesday, 12 October, at 19.00. Participants will include Karolina Breguła (artist, photographer, author of the Corrective Photographs project), Adam Mazur (photography critic and historian), Karolina Puchała-Rojek (photography historian, the book’s editor). The meeting is organised by the Archaeology of Photography Foundation and Instytut Reportażu.
The Archive as a Project. The Politics and Poetics of the (Photo) Archive – the post-conference publication, published as part of the FotoRejestr project, edited by Krzysztof Pijarski, is now available from the Foundation (Andersa Street 13, Entrance VII, Warsaw).
The publication is free. More details about the book >>> FotoRejestr
Project co-financed by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA Financial Mechanism and the Norwegian Financial Mechanism and by Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland.
This year, the Foundation has completed the digitization of Zbigniew Dłubak’s positives that comprise his oeuvre, including both prints and contact sheets. The complete scanned material will be soon available in our online database. Among the prints are works and contact sheets from the series “Gesticulations” and “Desymbolizations”, as well as shots used in “Iconosphere” from 1967. A small selection of images is available in the gallery.
Have a look at our offer of a limited series of collector’s reprints of photographs by Zbigniew Dlubak, Zofia Chometowska, Janusz Bakowski and Wladyslaw Pawelec. Not only do they make a great and exciting gift, but each purchase supports the statutory activity of the Archeology of Photography Foundation. The reprints are numbered, series strictly limited, archive quality, some of them have been featured in exhibitions organized by the Foundation. The price, depending on the artist, technique and format, varies between 300 and 800 PLN.
“Fotoeseje. Teksty o fotografii polskiej” [Photoessays. Texts on Polish Photography], a book by Lech Lechowicz, is already available at the Archeology of Photography Foundation in Nowogrodzka 18a, Warsaw, as well as through the Internet. This is the first comprehensive anthology of writings of Lech Lechowicz, a renowned photography expert, offering an invaluable contribution to the research of 20th-century art in Poland. The collected texts discuss Polish photography from both historical and problem-oriented perspectives. Price: 32 PLN.
On May 13-14th, 2011 the Archeology of Photography Foundation in Warsaw, Poland, organises an interdisciplinary conference dedicated to the practice and theory/critique of the photographic archive. The conference is in the frame of “PhotoRegister” project. In the wake of the “archival turn” that took place in the last 15 years or so, there seems to be an urgent need to reflect on the role of the photographic archive in Central and Eastern Europe, not only for the humanities, but also in the context of art and politics – on the perspectives it opens and the dangers it creates.
“Living Archives”, a major project by the Archeology of Photography Foundation, seeks to introduce now classic Polish photographers into the wider context of the history of art and culture by means of their oeuvres being reinterpreted by contemporary artists who offer new frameworks and interpretations of lesser known or forgotten works. The project will be officially inaugurated with the exhibition “The Little Man / Anticipation” featuring work by Zofia Rydet and Julia Staniszewska (11.03.11 - 22.04.11, Asymmetry Gallery). Opening: March 10, 2011, 7.00 p.m.
Nicolas Grospierre’s (b. 1975) The Picture Which Grows, realised in the apartment of photographer Tadeusz Sumiński (1924-2009), is another event in the Archaeology of Photography Foundation’s Living Archives series devoted to establishing creative dialogue between the classic figures of Polish photography and contemporary artists.
We are pleased to announce the Foundation’s new publication, The American Woman, a book of Zofia Chomętowska’s photographs in the interpretation of Jakub Śwircz and Kuba Dąbrowski. The publication resembles a small notebook that can be browsed with casual pleasure. The visual material, never published before, shows fragments of prewar Poland’s daily life. The book has been published in 300 copies and is available for PLN 35. The publication is part of the Living Archives project.
We are pleased to announce another event taking part through the Living Archives project: the exhibition Jerzy Lewczyński / Krzysztof Pijarski. Playing the Archive Game is an attempt to reinterpret the archive, but also the entire oeuvre, of photographer Jerzy Lewczyński. At Galeria Asymetria we are showing Jerzy Lewczyński’s (b. 1924) photographic series Face-Pulling Skirmish and a new work by Krzysztof Pijarski (b. 1980), titled JL – KP, which is an attempt to confront the larger figure of the Gliwice-based artist and the archive he has amassed over years. The exhibition is on from 17 June through 31 July 2011. Opening hours during the summer season: Monday-Wednesday 11.00-17.00, Thursday 12.00-19.00.
Archeology of Photography at the Science Picnic held by the Copernicus Science Centre and Polish Radio, June 12th, from 11.00 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tent 140 in collaboration with the Warsaw Uprising Museum
AP Foundation at the Fotopolis fair, 11-13 June
Urban game "Dlubak’s Mokotow", June 13th, 10.00 a.m. to 2 p.m. 14.00, with prizes!
Last days of the exhibition of Zbigniew Dlubak’s works "Inside" in Pulawska 24a
Another installment of Zofia Chometowska’s archive has arrived from Argentina, containing thousands of negatives from before and after the war, numerous prints, as well as contact sheets, made by the artist. The set includes photographs commissioned by the Ministry of Communication, exhibition shots of the Warsaw Accusses! show, images of Warsaw in ruins, and landscapes of the Polesie region. Transportation of the archive was made possible with the financial help from the Funduszu Wymiany Kulturalnej, while work on the archive has begun owing to a grant from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
Elzbieta Tejchman has generously donated pre-war magazines and books about photography from her collection to the Foundation’s collection. The gifted items include periodicals such as "Fotograf Warszawski", "Fotograf Polski", "Foto", "Przeglad Fotograficzny", and "Wiadomości Fotograficzne", as well as books such as Jan Bulhak’s Estetyka Swiatla. A complete list of titles and issues will be soon available on our web page.