[Fall 2025]
A Pink Cloud in a Grey Sky
by Amélie Laurence Fortin
[EXCERPT]
“Our choices are not neutral;
we are as vulnerable and sensitive
to the effects of images as anyone else.”
— Kamila Bondar and Łukasz Rusznica
Introduced by a short wall text on the challenge of subjectivity and the importance of looking, Oczy moje zwodzą pszczoły [Mine Eyes Bees Deceive] was an exhibition of photographs by forty-six Polish artists and collectives displayed in eight galleries in the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA). The curators – Kamila Bondar, interim director of the museum during the political transition (2024–25) and director of the ING Bank art collection, and the photographer Łukasz Rusznica – chose to approach this first survey show in Warsaw since Adam Mazur published his book The Decisive Moment: New Phenomena in Polish Photography since 2000 (CCA, 2012) with affects and non-linearity rather than a conventional model. A publication accompanied the exhibition.
The history of Polish photography has been shaped, to a great extent, by the political conditions in the country. During the second half of the twentieth century, the political culture was sufficiently liberal to allow for the existence of independent art forms, providing a stable context for creation. Artists resisted government requirements for realism by turning to avant-gardes and developing what they called a neo-avant-garde – a current adopted by many photographers. This led to the emergence of a multidisciplinary approach to photography that included film, video, and performance. Among the historically important groups were Zero-61, co-founded by Józef Robakowski; Warsztat Formy Filmowej (The Film Form Studio), associated with the film school in Łódź, whose influence is still felt today; and Łódź Kaliska, known for its mix of the grotesque and a commercial photography aesthetic. There were also individuals working in multimedia (Tadeusz Kantor, Wiesław Borowski, Janusz Bakowski, Ireneusz Pierzgalski) and sociological photography (Zofia Rydet, Andrzej Batura, Anna Bohdziewicz), and, more recently, the interdisciplinary artist Katarzyna Kozyra, whose works address the body and its destruction. In the twentieth century, Polish photography involving experimentation with the formulation of identity developed in parallel with a large cohort of photojournalists covering the Soviet occupation and resistance movements.
[…]
[ Complete issue, in print and digital version, available here: Ciel variable 130 – PLANTS AND GARDENS ]
[ Complete article in digital version available here: A Pink Cloud in a Grey Sky]
Artiste interdisciplinaire, programmatrice et autrice, Amélie Laurence Fortin vit et travaille entre le Canada et la Pologne. À travers ses installations, sculptures et œuvres sonores, elle crée des récits futuristes, dans lesquels les objets sont les témoins des actions passées ou futures. Ses derniers projets se veulent l’occasion d’interroger les bouleversements technologiques actuels par le biais d’une approche de recherche formelle performative.