Eastern Europe, Central Europe, Central Europe... Whatever we call this area marked at its inception by both Byzantine and Frankish Empire influences, thinking about it triggers emotions again and again, from uncertainty to nostalgia to admiration, and sometimes a whole diverse range of feelings, as seen in literary or cinematic narratives describing the European phenomenon.
To an outside observer, it will be a space of time and space shaped equally by the intersecting efforts of missionaries and military conquests. Probably this is why the feeling of pressure inherent in everyday life is, according to many trying to understand us and our existence, stronger and more vexing in this area than anywhere else. Over time, this interpretation began to be accompanied by confusion and manipulation, from which emerged a false image of the supposed collective identity of some Central European peoples, often referred to in Western literature since the 19th century with the disparaging term "unhistorische." Meanwhile, it is precisely the opposition to this type of classification that is an important part of the heritage shared by many of the citizens of authentically "our Europe," for whom it remains unique primarily through its cultural and social diversity.
The map of "New Europe" proposed by Lukasz Trzcinski is not a map of travel in geographical space, being rather an area of complex experience of freedom. Created by a series of projects subject to verification and correction, it creates an unfinished space, "in the making" - our true and close Europe in the full meaning of these words. The creation of each of the presented sets of photographs was preceded by careful consideration, perhaps not so much of the idea of Europe, but of the cultural or historical conditions for communal behavior or the search for separateness. It can be assumed that this attitude is the source of the meanings present in Lukasz Trzcinski's project: the awareness of the ambiguity of reality, the overlapping of perspectives, and finally - which is particularly important - the conviction of the complex function of photography-art, treated as a tool for triggering a social message, the real meaning of which exceeds the area of imaging the registered reality. The consequence of taking the above statement as a starting point for considering the strategies leading to the emergence of the image of the "New Europe" of the title, seems to be to pose the question about the factors determining that Trzciński's project is more than just a photographic mirror in which we would like to look at ourselves fondly, seeking involuntary confirmation of our own already tamed fragile advantages and harmless weaknesses.
The first remark that should be made in the search for an answer to the question posed in this way must concern the aesthetic heterogeneity of the project - a feature most relevant to the actual state of recorded contemporaneity. For we must admit that the puzzle of "our" order, once laid out, has been scattered. The former forced order has been replaced by an ordinary and chaotic everyday life, the elements of which are, for many, a sense of freedom, independence and satisfaction, but there is no shortage of those who feel social and economic discrimination, leading too often to humiliating uncertainty, casting an ominous shadow over human existence, the essential elements of which are insufficiency and a sense of disappointment. In a significant and perhaps the only possible sense, Lukasz Trzcinski's project, built from the variety of techniques, formats and arrangements used by the artist, is a chance to experience this anxiety. Through this experience, we have a chance to become participants in a game whose stakes, more than the satisfaction of being noticed, are the pursuit of interpretation subordinated to understanding. In this situation, the contemporary artist is forced to use legible and thus attractive motifs and a full scale of stylistic means to the point of eclecticism - all in order to draw the viewer into a labyrinth of interpenetrating spaces and perspectives, where past and future are frozen in still images. From what has been said above, it is clear that the project in question is an ambiguous and "coded" space of research, memory and interaction.
In this space, the photographs from Nowa Huta are perhaps the most narrative, based on a particular authorial experience and through it revealing the climate of hope of the Polish time of transformation. In the evocative images of a new expectation, this time for the fulfillment of an economic miracle, seem to lie the eternal riddles: does "new" mean "definitively better" and does freedom open up space for wisdom or, on the contrary, is it a time of a carnival of stupidity? Today we already know that these are almost Hamlet-like questions to which we are unable or unwilling to know clear answers. So why are we once again baffled by photographs of a time of joy and hope? Perhaps it is not easy for us to become accustomed to the melancholic aura permeating these close reportage shots, which appears today, years later, as a harbinger of failures and missed opportunities? After the change in the system, residents who for decades had been provided with everything from jobs to forms of leisure activities felt the transformation acutely. At this point it is difficult to resist the reflection that an inherent feature of human functioning turns out to be relativism related to the time and place of presence, to the perception and experience of reality.
Today in Bulgaria, wages are low, so huge stores in the centers of towns and villages stand empty. Some of the owners open stalls in them out of habit rather than out of hope of profit... This laconic information is part of the commentary for the photographs of "full shelves" from Bulgaria, which are a kind of pastiche of photographs of advertising promises and contain content relating to the history of utopian dreams accompanying the emergence of an open market for consumption. If it seems obvious to us that "open" does not mean "universal" in this case, we can easily find in these photos a metaphorical confirmation of the truth about the inevitability and dramatic dimension of economic divisions. The ambiguity of this photographic situation is further emphasized by a scale of aesthetic quality that can be described as a particular picturesqueness, perhaps most appropriate for a story of unrealized dreams.
The photographic record of the landscapes of the geographically and culturally distant landscapes of Slovakia and Albania are images of desolation and destruction. Their juxtaposition here may seem surprising, and yet they have uniformly become, like the entire area of "New Europe," a space for mass tourism. The puzzling nature of these photographs lies in the selection and depiction of architectural motifs, curios by their appearance or location, which are one of the favorite subjects for popular tourist photography. The presence of both the blocky blocks of residential cubes in Slovakia and the domes of bunkers on the Albanian coast introduces disturbing accents into the picturesque landscape, evoking an atmosphere of danger or even fear, accompanying an isolated existence. The result is a space of disharmony, being an environment of marginalization of human beings, their aspirations and needs. To this day, bunkers are a ubiquitous element of the Albanian landscape. Forgotten, destroyed, they will long remain a memory of years of oppression and terror. The question remains, with the reconstruction of Europe, has this situation of isolation really ended, or is it taking on new, less tangible forms?
Man's spirituality is inscribed in the meanderings of his functioning in the emerging new reality. A subtle, allusive message concerning these issues can be found in a series of photographs from Germany, the meanings of which lie between the sacred and the profane. One can see in them a reference to the history of amateur photography, treated as a tool for recording important moments of life. Jugendweihe is a secular ceremony, the equivalent of the confirmation of fourteen-year-olds. Today it is experiencing a renaissance, becoming another "celebration" of consumer society. Although today the constant presence of photography has made the aura of uniqueness surrounding it fade, in the portraits of young Germans the artist has managed to evoke the characteristic mood of melancholy and loneliness that traditionally accompanies those portrayed on the occasion of secular or religious ceremonies, further emphasized here by the namelessness of the accompanying landscape motifs.
The reality of "New Europe" is inscribed by Lukasz Trzcinski in the contexts of everyday existence: entertainment, leisure, consumption or spirituality. In this space, the ubiquity of photography is a phenomenon too natural to be ignored, and the complexity of the meanings contained in it cannot be put into a simple frame scheme. Awareness of the ambiguity of reality and the feeling of surprise constantly accompany us as we move into the area created by the artist of the authentic dilemmas of the present, the complexity of the relationships inherent in it and the randomness of symbolism, an area freed from "naive realism," false pathos, euphoria and sentimentalism.
The article appeared in issue 31 of "Fotografia Quarterly" in 2009