At The Very Centre Of Attention 7

At first sight, the artists presented in Part VII of the at the very centre of attention project recreate reality in keeping with the tradition of mimetism and realism. Each of them, however, is fully aware of the futility of such efforts, and the resulting uncertainty is evident in their practice. Robert KuÊmirowski, Rafa∏ Bujnowski, and Robert Maciejuk reproduce reality with all the distortions, deformations, and shifts resulting from the perception thereof and from the effort to preserve that which you have seen.

In Robert KuÊmirowski's practice, the 'true' picture of history turns out to be a synthesis of memories, of knowledge derived from literature and science books, filtered through countless associations, conventions, and notions. A somewhat surreal narrative about a Doctor Vernier unfolding amid piles of old incunabula and precision-made requisites, is in fact a conglomerate of memory-recalled images, dreams, and expectations of the past. The platform of this quasi-historical narrative is thoroughly contemporary - it is in fact only a copy of the present standards of constructing images of the past.

Whereas KuÊmirowski creates history, or mythology, basing on existing conventions, Robert Maciejuk multiplies patterns, carefully covering up the narratives behind them. The consecutive levels of his seemingly realistic representations are like curtains, screening off from our eyes not so much the view from the Albertian window as its model. This is mimetism, but one referring to the filters present between the viewer and the image. Maciejuk carefully recreates the patterns of realistic representation, but the effect he obtains is that of an artificial cartoon-like scenery.

The last of the artists presented in this part of the project, Rafa∏ Bujnowski, undertakes a simple, though resulting in complex consequences, game with the painting tradition. Thoroughly trained in the painting profession, he uses his skill, on the one hand, in a pragmatic manner - when he treats it, for instance, as an instrument for performing forgeries or producing real-use street-demo banners, and, on the other, in a conceptual one - when he uses it to blur the seemingly obvious distinction between the mimetic and the abstract. His paintings represent real objects, and at the same time apply for the status thereof. And, as Bujnowski proves, their existence in the world can result in very real consequencesÖ

Pressetext

AT THE VERY CENTRE OF ATTENTION
PART 7
Kurator: Jaroslaw Suchan

mit Rafal Bujnowski, Robert Kusmirowski, Robert Maciejuk