TOMASZ KAWECKI, ALEKSANDRA PRZYBYSZ

THE HOWLING OF DOGS COULD BE HEARD IN THE VILLAGE

OPENING: 10. 10. 2023 OD 19H
EXHIBITION: 11. 10. – 18. 11. 2023

Tomasz Kawecki and Aleksandra Przybysz treat the topic of local history, mythology and passing of time in a unique way. Young Polish artists documented over twenty abandoned buildings in the Polish countryside and gradually discovered their turbulent history. They made 360° recordings of these spaces which are consequently presented to viewers in the form of a virtual tour using VR glasses. Individual desolated interiors appear randomly and thus create a kind of labyrinth of rural history. The installation is complemented by detailed photographs of remaining artifacts as well as polaroids simply recording the given location. This creates an exceptionally elaborate study of forgotten places spread across the Polish landscape and the tragic stories that happened there.
„In this alternative reality, we reached for all sorts of magical activities breaking through the rational approach that would help us deal with all this cruelty. One such action was a reference to the folk magic of knots. We decided to bind the abandoned houses we found in order to close their memories, physical boundaries and stop the decay metaphorically. We wrote down the stories of the events in the places we visited in the form of fairy tales, so that only the memory remains. The time, place and protagonists of the events had to remain anonymous.“
Tomasz Kawecki (*1993) is a photographer living and working between Krakow and Warsaw. He studied at the Institute of Creative Photography in Opava and at the Faculty of Architecture of the Technical University in Krakow. www.tomaszkawecki.com
Aleksandra Przybysz (*1994) is a multidisciplinary artist; her practice focuses on the human being and his symbolic relationship with nature, space and inherited memory. She graduated from the Department of Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and studied at Escola das Artes in Porto at the Department of Film and Sound Realization. www.aleksandra-przybysz.format.com