COLLATERAL (KRK/NUE)
Artists: Henryk Hermanowicz, Łukasz Trzciński, Wojciech Wilczyk, Michael Ackerman, Friedrich Kuhrt, Anika Maaß, Jutta Missbach, René Radomsky, Michael Ullrich,
Opening: Jan 27th, 2017 (Friday), 6PM
Curator: Wojciech Nowicki
Coordinator: Jolanta Zawiślak, Renata Kopyto (Nuremberg House in Kraków)
Location: Ground floor
Co-organizers: Nuremberg House in Kraków, Krakow House in Nuremberg
Partners: Nuremberg City Hall, Kraków City Hall
The project is co-financed by the Foundation for Polish-German Cooperation
The starting point of the exhibition are photographs that on one side present a swastika-decorated stand at the Nazi Party rally site in Nuremberg, on the other – the first post-war May Day march in Kraków. The post-war history of the capital of Lesser Poland is presented in photos by Henryk Hermanowicz, taken at the Kobierzyn Psychiatric Hospital. They depict the victims of war trauma.
Collateral (KRK/NUE) is also focused on contemporaneity. The photos from the cycle Święta wojna [Holy War] by Wojciech Wilczyk present the xenophobic, racist, and aggressive graffiti of football fans. Nuremberg’s Jutta Missbach presents a work created in Kraków, specifically for this exhibition. It is a loose documentation of architecture, a juxtaposition of unwanted communist heritage such as concrete housing projects with the later aesthetic heritage of plastic signboards and inscriptions. René Radomsky, also from Nuremberg, deals with city space unburdened with historical heritage – he presents his photos of urban birds that could even be considered “vagrants”.
The private contemporaneity of Kraków is also presented in the photos of the eminent American photographer Michael Ackerman, who spent many years in the capital of Lesser Poland. His dark, acute photos, portraits, and street scenes are visions of Kraków at night. Annika Maaß is focused on that which is ephemeral. Her 1440 is a recording of a day in the life of many individuals – friends, acquaintances, but also random strangers. The artist records their daily events. Photos of Michael Ullrich are similarly private; the artist is focused on his own life and creating a photo journal. The work of Kraków artist Łukasz Trzciński, also prepared specifically for this exhibition, serves as Collateral’s coda; its basis is a video shot in Nuremberg.