MISTER - vernissage 16.10.2022 at 16.30 / Exposition 14.10.2022 - 04.11.2022 Old Town Hall in Gniezno, 41A Chrobrego Street, 62-200 Gniezno
The exhibition "Jerzy Sieczkowski - Master" is a form of tribute to the outstanding photographer and educator on the 20th anniversary of his death. Jerzy was known mainly as a documentary photographer recording the daily life of Gniezno, an educator and an artist shrouded in an aura of mystery.
Jerzy Sieczkowski (1957-2002)Gniezno-based artist photographer. He created black-and-white, chemically toned and hand-tinted photography and has been involved in visual art since 1977. In 1980-1988 he was an instructor of the photographic section of MOK, and in 1984-2002 he was a full-time photographer of the Museum of the Origins of the Polish State in Gniezno. He was one of the leaders of the Gniezno photographic community. Despite the widespread recognition of the environment, his work remained mostly hidden. The artist was awarded in significant competitions and took part in individual and collective exhibitions in Warsaw, Swidnica, Bielsko Biala, Pila, Gniezno. He has raised about 50 adepts of art in photography workshops, instilling in them a love for photography by a capital F. Many of his students became professional photographers and photojournalists for well-known Polish titles.
Solo exhibitions:
"Tribute of Gratitude" - Gniezno 1983,
"Celebration of St. Adalbert" - Gniezno 1985,
"Kraków Kazimierz" - Gniezno 1989,
"12 photographs" - Gniezno 1992,
"A little color". - Gniezno 1993 (Gallery "Under five").
He presented his works very rarely and avoided participating in group exhibitions. He was an individualist and a beacon of knowledge for those seeking the mystery of latent light. He was an outstanding individual against the background of the entire photographic environment in Gniezno. He approached all photographic works with anointment and due respect. His photographic achievements were shrouded in an aura of mystery. With his knowledge, skills and talent, he stood out from other photographers in Gniezno. He was happy to offer advice, but never took shortcuts - he always kept the highest artistic and technical level of the photographic works he presented. He was a determinant of the best and uncompromising - like a subway standard for other photography enthusiasts, like the zero meridian for sailors and travelers.
In the photography gallery he founded and ran at MOK, he presented exhibitions in Gniezno: landscapes by leading Polish photographer Pawel Pierściński, series by world-renowned Krakow photographer Adam Bujak entitled "The Vatican. "Vatican City,
"Mount Athos" and "Holy Land", "Faces of Jazz" by Marek Karewicz (again, a world-class name). Not only those who are interested in photography will probably remember the exhibition "Man of a Hundred Faces" by Tomasz Machcinski and the meeting with the author, who, thanks to photography, is able to impersonate dozens of well-known figures from history. There were also exhibitions organized by Sieczkowski: "Events of 1956, 1970, 1976, 1980″, "Venus 75″, "Bavaria in the eyes of the Poles "3. The portraits of T. Machciński could also be seen by Gniezno residents in a mini-street gallery created on Sieczkowski's initiative in the window of the "Gwarna" restaurant. To begin with, he showed there in 1982.
His own realization of "Gniezno in old photography".
***
Jerzy Sieczkowski - My Students. Marek Lapis, Piotr Robakowski, Przemysław Strzyżewski. Cultural Center eSTeDE "Scena to dziwna" 42 Roosevelta street 62-200 Gniezno. vernissage 16.08.2022 at 18.00 / Exposition 16.10.2022 - 06.11.2022
The "master-student" relationship is the basis of art education. In the past, this is how new talents were forged. We want to return to this and present the artistic and lasting value of this relationship . In the past and nowadays, students drew established knowledge, experience or secrets of art from their spiritual leader. Now this relationship is fading, so the time is right to accentuate and resurrect it.
On the 20th anniversary of Jerzy Sieczkowski's death, the idea of paying tribute to him by "his students" was conceived. After several decades, we will see the works of curator Marek Lapis in two exhibitions as part of a diptych: Jerzy Sieczkowski and his students: Marek Lapis, Piotr Robakowski and Przemyslaw Strzyżewski. "His students" realize in their authorial expressions Jerzy's peculiar artistic testament, one can see in them the "inner landscape" and "eye" of their Master.
In 1980-1988, I taught classes at the photography studio of the Municipal Cultural Center in Gniezno. At that time about 50 students passed through it. Some had enough enthusiasm for a few weeks, others persevered for several years, and there are some who continue to photograph despite leaving MOK. The presented exhibition is a collection of the most interesting works made in different years by the most active students. Thus, it is a presentation of their skills and ingenuity, as well as a summary of my instructor activities." This is what Jerzy Sieczkowski, Gniezno-based
photographer, working professionally at the Museum of the Origins of the Polish State in Gniezno. The exhibition has been presented in the gallery of MOK since October 21 and I think it is one of the most interesting photographic presentations in Gniezno in recent times.
Some of Sieczkowski's protégés have managed to reach this stage, others have already managed to take a step further and these use the photographic technique as a means of aesthetic or poetic processing of reality. However, all participants in the exhibition have managed to achieve what is very important in this field of creativity: they have managed to reach a level at which it is possible not only to faithfully record the surrounding world, but also to express themselves through the photographic image. * J. Kalwak, Eye and Hand of the Instructor, "Transformations," 3.11.1989, no. 44, p.11.
Marek Lapis will present an intermedia project, "Borders of Color," about how blind people see colors.
Board member of the Union of Polish Artists Photographers Wielkopolska District, graduate of Intermedia Photography at the Faculty of Media Art at the University of Arts in Poznan. Scholarship holder of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Marshal of the Wielkopolska Region and Żywiec Zdrój. Awarded a medal for Merit to Polish Photography on the 100th anniversary of Poland's independence. He taught photography at the College of Humanities and Journalism, later at the Wielkopolska School of Photography. Until 1996 a full-time photojournalist for the weekly WPROST, since 2000 he has been working with the FORUM Agency.
Piotr Robakowski started in 1993 at Gazeta Wyborcza in Poznań, editor of Gazeta Poznańska and contributor to several automotive magazines. Since 2004 he has been associated with television. He created cyclical magazines present on TVP Poznan - automotive magazine "Moto-Wizje", as well as nature program "Natura 2000". Originator and realizer of the program on extreme sports "Male Adventure" for TVP INFO. He prepared reports for TVP1, TVP 2, TVP Polonia and TVP HD. Writer and producer of a series of documentaries about the beginnings of Polish aviation for Discovery TVN Historia.
Przemysław Strzyżewski "the last student" of Jerzy Sieczkowski, since 1989 a member of the creative group FOTO'86. Przemysław will present structural sets close to his heart, referring to inspirations from the time of photography courses at the Municipal Cultural Center in Gniezno.
Exhibitions held as part of the 75th anniversary of the Union of Polish Artists Photographers.
Exhibition implemented as part of the Library's project
The Public Library of the City of Gniezno
Exhibition realized within the framework of the VIII Festival of Cultural Heritage "Fyrtel" Gniezno
Exhibition within the framework of the 6th Ireneusz Zjeżdżałka Greater Poland Festival of Photography.
The diptych of exhibitions is curated by Marek Lapis.