BAND

Band, Galeria Wystawa, Warsaw, 2016

„We know that we know everything, but our wisdom will become a stone anyway.”
Ewa Braun ( musical band ) „Trzy”

The exhibition entitled „BAND” opens with a sound registration of my manipulations on the Soviet pocket radio Neywa 402. This handheld radio, owned by my family for decades has lost the ability to receive any stations correctly over time. There was only noise left, trying to tune the sound and get a clear sound failed. This has led me to think that the message itself, or in other words the information I am trying to express through art, is of little importance, perhaps it is more interesting how it is born, what kind of processes take place then, and how it can I interfere with these processes. We are all trying to express something, but often the results are unsatisfactory, probably because the reality is changing too fast, and when we formulate a thought, it is already out of date. The twentieth-century avant-garde and many contemporary artists pay attention to the „processuality” of art, or reject the object as a final effect in their work … I dont think its neccessary – but many of the currently occurring phenomena associated with the media message and in a wider sense with communication in general, suggests methods that can be used in traditionally understood art. It seems to me that constant tuning and searching for the right frequency – using a radio metaphor – is one of the key features of culture today. We do not know exactly what we are looking for and what we expect, we are accidentally finding something interesting, which, after a quick consummation, can be replaced with the next one. Of course, these phenomena are closely related to the relationship between man and technology – my way of working is not so much based on the analysis of modern technology from the scientific side, or on various media theories, but rather on the relationship itself – the relationship and its emotional consequences that I use when creating my work.

I think that from the practical side these methods inevitably connect with the matter of time and how it works in painting. The archaeological aspect, or rather the „reversed archeology” that I use, plays an important role in this installation. In my work I use graphite which (after Wikipedia): „is formed as a result of metamorphosis of rocks, as the end product of transformation of organic substances rich in carbon, it conducts electricity and heat well.” So it is a mineral that needs a very long time to be constituted. On the other hand, its shiny surface may suggest futuristic or „retrofuturistic” associations. Cables forming the next layer of work are arranged in a network of connections, rendering a complicated global system of information exchange.

I am attracted to noise as a potential space for meditation, I think that listening carefully to chaotic contemporary surroundings and redirecting sensitivity to new sounds and images can give an insight into something universal, not located in any specific space-time. The noise, as we know, is an acoustic phenomenon, not a visual phenomenon, so naturally this work refers to the art of sound and to music. The title of the exhibition „Band” means a musical band, in this case a count of two hundred members, each of whom performs a different function, each is subordinated to the composition, but also each improvises. The structure of the band is not immutable, it is still growing, the passing time and the experience of „musicians” modify its sound. From the compositional side, I treat this work like a virus, a parasite which as one „liquid” organism is able to function in any space. It can be said that the exhibition at the Wystawa Gallery is the debut of my new band.