The New Documentalists

Among the trends present in Polish art of the beginning of the century - besides young painting and the ironic "post-critical art," one can discern the trend, based on the recording of the images of reality, of the new documentalists. Fitting the context of contemporary art, the new documentalists consciously part with the, dominant until recently, tradition of the artistic act in photography as a "visual gesture."

In other words, new document isn't about creating alternative, separate spaces. Instead of creating an aesthetical asylum, the artist uses the camera to confront the viewer with images of the Real. In this context, the words of Jerzy Busza, written during the martial law, when reality yet again proved a challenge for art, sound surprisingly to-the-point today. "When artistic tricks have become redundant, there comes a time of minimalism and sparing means of expression, reality comes to the fore, and imagination looks for stimuli outside (rather than in itself). This is when the thinking camera comes into being."

It is by no accident that Busza, who felt an affinity to the neo-avantgarde of the 1970s, emphasises thinking as the necessary component of photography. Unlike in the pictorial tradition, where purely formal, impressionistic aesthetical experience dominated, the thinking camera makes an effort to represent, but also to analyse reality and the ways it is perceived.

Participants: Anna Bedyńska, Agnieszka Brzeżańska, Mikołaj Grospierre, Aneta Grzeszykowska / Jan Smaga, Andrzej Kramarz / Weronika Łodzińska, Zuzanna Krajewska, Franciszek Mazur, Rafał Milach, Igor Omulecki, Krzysztof Pijarski, Przemysław Pokrycki, Igor Przybylski, Konrad Pustoła, Szymon Rogiński, Wojciech Wilczyk, Albert Zawada, Krzysztof Zieliński, Ireneusz Zjeżdżałka, Zorka Project (Monika Bereżecka, Monika Redisz)

The New Documentalists
photography
Kurator: Adam Mazur

mit Anna Bedynska, Agnieszka Brzezanska, Mikolaj Grospierre, Aneta Grzeszykowska & Jan Smaga, Andrzej Kramarz / Weronika Lodzinska, Zuzanna Krajewska, Franciszek Mazur, Rafal Milach, Igor Omulecki, Krzysztof Pijarski, Przemyslaw Pokrycki, Igor Przybylski, Konrad Pustola, Szymon Roginski, Wojciech Wilczyk, Albert Zawada, Krzysztof Zielinski, Ireneusz Zjezdzalka, Zorka Project  (Monika Berezecka, Monika Redisz)