Tomasz Dobiszewski’s Minor Absences is the first exhibition designed especially for Bunkier Sztuki. Its author and the curator interpret it as a narrative about clichés that stem from the way that we perceive reality, about truth and fiction, about all that goes to construct memory and the gaps in it. Dobiszewski graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań (2005). His work explores time and space and the limits of our perception as well as illusion and the issues of interaction. He combines messages to be interpreted by our different senses; in a contrary way, he experiments with human physiology, depriving the viewer of the capacity for getting to know his works.

When preparing his exhibition for Bunkier Sztuki, the artist was inspired by two themes: the Gallery’s building – a modernist structure in the very heart of Krakow (which houses a rich archive of the almost five decades of its own existence) and a non-conventional use of the media and theories traditionally applied in narratives about art, such as para-engineering activities, influenced by aesthetic theories, psychology and neurophysiology.

The exhibition poses essential questions: in what way does a location determine the idiom of art? In what way does the artistic idiom define the location in which it comes into being? Dobiszewski takes up the challenge of answering these questions with his unusual artistic activities. He makes use of movement sensors, flash, large-format cameras customised by him and the principles of descriptive geometry. He takes on the entirely rational laws of physics, taking into account that chance and luck play just as important roles as precision planning. The exhibition takes for granted a large element of the unknown, the unexpected and the mysterious – the same is true about the photographic procedure, on which the exhibition is based.

As Krzysztof Siatka noted in the curatorial text accompanying the exhibition, Perhaps, the installations of Tomasz Dobiszewski are, above all, testimony to the conviction that understanding is synonymous with illusion. He explained that both I and the artist intend to emphasise the uncertainty of any conclusions that we reach. The exhibition posits hypotheses and prompts clues, sending impulses to reflection. It whispers about ‘small absences’ – these traces, imprints and afterimages of memories. Negatives and positives, remains, outlines, shadows and flashes both literal and metaphorical, for almost two months will rule at Bunkier Sztuki. Welcome!

Tomasz Dobiszewski (born 1977). In 2005, graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań in the Studio of Intermedia Photography directed by Krzysztof J. Baranowski and Stefan Wojnecki.

He formulates his artistic statement using photography, video and multimedia installations. He explores time and space and the limits of perception as well as illusion and issues related to interaction. In his works, which demonstrate his gentle breaking in of the media, he goes beyond purely conceptual cognitive strategies and enriches the discourse by introducing supra-intellectual elements such as sensual sensations and intuitive cognition. He combines messages that can be read by our different senses. In experimenting with the physiology of seeing and hearing, on the one hand he aims to achieve a fuller and more complete message yet on the other hand, perhaps contrarily or ironically, he deprives the viewer of the possibility of getting to the essence of the work.

Accompanying Events

Film series: architectural passengers

Curator: Maciej Stasiowski

We would like to invite you to a series of viewings. In each film, the narrative is subjugated to the architectual space. Each of the five sessions will focus on one of the concepts introduced into the architectural vocabulary by 20th-century post-modernists and deconstructivists: narration (Nigel Coates), event (Bernard Tschumi), sign/reference (Robert Venturi), layout (Raimund Abraham) and memory (Daniel Libeskind).

Screening 1

Thursday 23 January 2014, 6 pm

Last Year at Marienbad, directed by Alan Resnais (1961)

Screening 2

Thursday 30 January 2014, 6 pm

In the City of Sylvia, directed by José Luis Guerín (2007)

Screening 3

Thursday 6 February 2014, 6 pm

Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow, directed by Sophie Finnes (2010)

Screening 4

Saturday 15 February 2014, 8 pm

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth, directed by Chad Freidrichs (2011)

As part of Open Day

Screening 5

Thursday 20 February 2014, 6 pm

Nina, directed by Elisa Fuksas (2012)

Venue: audiovisual hall

Open Day: Tomasz Dobiszewski Exhibition

Saturday 15 February 2014

11 am: MKBS (Bunkier Sztuki Little Club) workshop

1 pm: Krzysztof Siatka | Curator-guided tour of the exhibition

4 pm: Ewa Wójtowicz | Post-index Image in Post-Internet Culture

6 pm: Tadeusz Sławek, Bogdan Mizerski | I Don’t Want to Look Any More. Flickering: about a place and a gaze. An essay for voice and double bass

8 pm: Maciej Stasiowski  |  architectural passengers

Film screening part 4

Tomasz Dobiszewski (born 1977). In 2005, graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań in the Studio of Intermedia Photography directed by Krzysztof J. Baranowski and Stefan Wojnecki.

He formulates his artistic statement using photography, video and multimedia installations. He explores time and space and the limits of perception as well as illusion and issues related to interaction. In his works, which demonstrate his gentle breaking in of the media, he goes beyond purely conceptual cognitive strategies and enriches the discourse by introducing supra-intellectual elements such as sensual sensations and intuitive cognition. He combines messages that can be read by our different senses. In experimenting with the physiology of seeing and hearing, on the one hand he aims to achieve a fuller and more complete message yet on the other hand, perhaps contrarily or ironically, he deprives the viewer of the possibility of getting to the essence of the work.