Tomasz Dobiszewski

TOMASZ DOBISZEWSKI | MINOR ABSENCES

17 January 2014 – 23 February 2014
Curator: Krzysztof Siatka
Curator, the accompanying programme: Anna Lebensztejn
Co-ordination: Renata Zawartka

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's works explores time and space and the limits of our perception as well as illusion and the issues of interaction.

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, flashes, 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 ruled at Bunkier Sztuki.

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Dolna gallery - sketch for a project
installation, charcoal drawing, 2014

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Designations
installation, pinhole photography (silver contact prints 8” x 10” and 5” x 7”), word-shaped lenses, 2013

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Anecdotes
installation, photography (silver contact prints 8” x 10”), sand, grass, carpet, floor panels, 2014

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Memorabilia - bunkier
interactive installation, flashboxes (diapositives, PCV, flash lamps, movement sensors), 2014

old realisations / starsze realizacje

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Selected works
installation, floor-covering with cut-out holes, engraved plates, 2014

Marcel Duchamp
La mariee mise a nu par ses celibataires, meme (Le Grand Verre)
[The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass)]
1915-1923

John Cage
4’33”
1952

Joseph Kosuth
One and Three Chairs
1965

Marina Abramovic i Ulay
Rest Energy
1980

Jeff Koons
Michael Jackson and Bubbles
1988

Maurizio Cattelan
All (fragment)
2007