29.02.2024 at 18.00 / Opening hours: Wed. - Sun. : 12.00 - 18.00 / Exhibition duration: 01.03 - 06.04.2024 / Alina Foundation / ul.Brzozowa 31/33 lok.1 Warsaw
In his latest series "In Praise Of Shadow," Tomasz Kawecki explores through the medium of photography the space in which the shadow represents the natural world and the beliefs associated with it. The artist assumes that the shadow has become a hiding place for animistic and primordial beliefs, representing remnants of the natural world that man has not managed to assign to himself.
British biologist, traveler and popularizer of natural knowledge David Attenborough confirms that, not counting the ocean floor, there are no places in the world that have not been taken over by humans. The ancient ghosts of legends have thus had to adapt to the present world. Hiding in the shadows cast by man, they seek refuge in the dark - holes in the ground, caves, dark corners in abandoned houses.
Tomasz Kawecki seeks out these inaccessible worlds in the vicinity of Nowa Ruda and in its underground. The artist works exclusively at night, moving around in the dark with his camera and flash. He discovers realms of organisms hiding under the cover of darkness - spaces associated with the primordial perception of nature. They are foggy, damp, hypnotically appealing and at the same time filling one with the fear of discovering the unexpected, impossible to name and classify. Accompanied by various species of fungi and mold, the artist experiences the shadows with increasing intensity and dives deeper and deeper into his subconscious. He drifts between dream and waking.
"In Praise Of Shadow." The title of the work comes from an essay written by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki in 1993. In it, the Japanese writer defines the basis of Japanese aesthetics, referring to the category of shadow as a metaphor for ambiguity, ephemerality and transience.
Guardianship:
Adam Panczuk
The presentation is combined with the launch of a photo album published in cooperation with Rustpublishing.