exhibition

The Experiencing Place exhibition presents some of the most interesting photographic projects created in Upper Silesia after 2010, telling the story of the region. It is a reflection on the relationship between man and space, understood as a place of life. The exhibition will present photographs by Krzysztof Szewczyk, Tomasz Liboska and Kaja Rata. The common denominator for the selected cycles is the phenomenon of experiencing a place, which is an important topic in the philosophy of culture. The exhibition has been divided into three semantic modules – physical, existential and phantasmal experience.

“In order to understand what a place and our existence in it is, we need to refer to various types and levels of experiencing and understanding a place: from the bodily reaction of a living organism, through emotions experienced and expressed poetically […], to philosophical inquiries into the truth of being” [1] .

The exhibition also shows the change that has been taking place gradually since the first decade of the 21st century in Silesian documentary photography. Over the decades, a distinctive iconography of the region has developed, dominated by the traditional black and white document. The new generation of artists departs from the canon both in terms of aesthetics, selection of topics, and the way of building a photographic story.

Krzysztof Szewczyk in the photographic series Tremors explores traces and stories related to the phenomenon of seismic tremors. It focuses on the epicentric fragments of the landscape, which it reaches thanks to the available seismic maps. The theme also refers to the collective experience of the inhabitants of mining towns, i.e. to the physical feeling of shocks and the related anxiety. The Upper Silesian Coal Basin is one of the most seismically active mining regions in the world. Due to the large-scale exploitation of natural resources in the second half of the twentieth century, up to several thousand tremors were recorded in this place a year.

“Retreat” is a long-term photographic project implemented in Upper Silesia since 2016 by Tomasz Liboska. The series is a photographic record of people and places, lined with a story about industrial heritage and people living in its shadow. Susan Sontag wrote of photography as an extension of the eye of the flâneur, who is “not interested in the official reality of the city, but in its dark, shady corners and neglected communities – the unofficial reality behind the façade of bourgeois life”[2] . These words can be applied to the actions of Liboski, who walks through the districts, focusing on isolated places, where neglected buildings and social problems create their own history.

Kaja Rata’s photographs from the “kajnikaj” series create a poetic story on the border of reality and dream. They are an example of a document and an artistic creation – two complementary forms of depicting reality. For Kai Rata, it is a way of finding a way to escape from the place where she was born and raised. Through a creative act, she manages to disenchant the place where she lives, because the Silesia emerging from the works has a cosmic aura, is peculiar and mysterious. This is a kind of confirmation of the view that imagination is the power of an individual to create other worlds, and fantasizing can be an act of opposition.

[1] H. Buczyńska-Garewicz, Places, pages, surroundings. A Contribution to the Phenomenology of Space , Universitas, Kraków 2006, pp. 5-6.

[2] S. Sontag, On Photography , Karakter, Kraków 2009, pp. 64-65.

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About the authors:

Krzysztof Szewczyk (born 1979 in Katowice). Photographer, visual artist. A graduate of the Institute of Creative Photography at the University of Silesia in Opava (Czech Republic) and the Institute of Political Science and Journalism at the University of Silesia in Katowice. Lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice. He participated in exhibitions in Poland and abroad. Scholarship holder of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage. In his work, he is interested in the multidimensional relationship of man with the landscape and the natural environment. He looks at wasteland spaces, explores peripheral areas.

Tomasz Liboska (born 1976 in Cieszyn). Photographer, documentarian. A graduate of the Institute of Creative Photography at the University of Silesia in Opava (Czech Republic) and ethnology at the University of Silesia in Katowice. Author of photographic publications: Cut it Short (Kehrer Verlag 2021, co-author Michał Solarski) and Retreat (Pix House 2018). He participated in many exhibitions in Poland and abroad. He presented his works, among others, as part of Krakow Photomonth, Hereford Photography Festival, New York Photo Festival, Athens Photo Festival, Belfast Photo Festival. He has published in “New York Magazine”, “La Repubblica”, “GEO Magazine”. In his work, he moves between a documentary set in an anthropological context and his own experiences.

Kaja Rata (born in 1987 in Silesia). A graduate of photography at the University of Arts in Poznań and the Institute of Creative Photography at the University of Silesia in Opava (Czech Republic), as well as Polish philology at the University of Silesia. Participant of the Sputnik Photos Mentoring Program in Warsaw (2015/2016). Scholarship holder of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (2017). Distinctions for the “kajnikaj” project: finals at LensCulture Emerging Talent Awards 2017, ShowOFF section of Krakow Photomonth 2017, Gomma Grant Shortlist, publications in “British Journal of Photography”, “Splash and Grab Magazine” and many others. In 2020, the series was exhibited as part of the Critical Mass Top 50 at the Center for Photographic Art in California. In his work, he tries to balance between fiction and documentary.