5.05.2023 / at 18.00 / Gallery of Photography B&B 2023 1 Maja Street Bielsko-Biala
The creative use of color in photography has already become a hallmark of Vladimír Birgus' style. This internationally recognized curator, historian of photography, educator, long-time head of the Institute of Creative Photography at Silesian University in Opava, is first and foremost an artist-photographer for whom color is the primary means of expression. However, this was not always the case.
Before Birgus became interested in the world in color, his artistic path led through the meanderings of created photography and images in the style of humanistic and subjective documentary. Only color photography, in which, it is worth noting, he was one of the pioneers in the 1980s, became for him the most perfect way of looking at, understanding and depicting the surrounding reality. Intense color and harsh light are formal qualities that the author uses in many of his photographs to attract the viewer's attention. Once he accomplishes this and we come closer to read the image, he begins his story, full of understatements and unanswered questions.
Birgus' photographs cannot be viewed superficially. The mesmerizing power of the human figures, enclosed in a carefully crafted compositional framework, does not allow it. The photographs here are reflections of human existence, specters of its mystery.
We don't want or need to know what's beyond the horizon toward which the figures in the photo, taken on one of Miami Beach's perfectly trimmed lawns, are heading. His photographs do not always feature vivid colors and people, sometimes the artist's latest works can be almost monochromatic.
The sight of people leaving their towels on Venice's Lido beach could be a disappointment to us, through its banality. Instead, however, we get a strong, compelling image that on the one hand exudes tranquility, but at the same time unsettles us with its vibrating mystery. Another photo, from Venice, shows five people facing the same direction. Despite the crowd, everyone here is alone, no one paying attention to any of their companions.
It is difficult to take our eyes and thoughts away from the photographs of Vladimír Birgus. They stay with us long after we leave the gallery space. They encourage us to look at reality in an original and surprising way. They create in us the need to meditate on the appearance of the world.
Michal Szalast
