Functionality, minimalism, and austerity are the first associations that come to mind when considering the urban planning of Wrocław. It is perhaps the only Polish city where the architecture so distinctly reflects Europe’s recent history. The Sedesowce, Kameleon, and WuWa complexes captivate and inspire audiences from all over the world, including artists. Among them is German visual artist Sinta Werner, who explores the geometric rationalism characteristic of modernist architecture.
We met with Sinta on the occasion of her solo exhibition Layers at the Foto-Gen Gallery in Wrocław. The gallery space itself served as the foundation for her work, concentrating the city’s history within its walls. While the oldest parts of the gallery date back to the 13th century, the building has undergone several reconstructions, with the most recent changes in the 1990s. Werner sees Wrocław’s modernism as a vital part of the city’s cultural heritage, shaping its identity. Fascinated by geometry and the interplay of light, the artist focuses on the details of facades, which serve as a springboard for further visual explorations in her work.
Julia Gorlewska: In your work, you explore the relationship between two-dimensional and three-dimensional forms, reality and its reproduction, physical presence and projection, as well as the interplay between abstract and real spaces. What motivates your exploration of these connections?
Sinta Werner: My work is always an exploration of perception – visual perception and the perception of space. By translating an image of space back into a spatial situation, I create new interpretations that sometimes reinforce or sometimes dissolve spatiality. Mistranslations creep in that subtly irritate or create illusions that question our viewing habits and thus sensitise our way of looking at ordinary things.
J.G.: As already mentioned, your work is a dialogue between extremes, constantly searching for common ground amidst diversity. The space of the Foto-Gen Gallery seems to provide an ideal backdrop for your artistic practice. The exhibition becomes a visual play on the viewer’s perception. Could you elaborate on the concept of the exhibition and its main objectives? What was the biggest challenge you faced while working on this project?
S.W.: For me, the exhibition centres around the two photographic works Scaffolding and Garment, which I developed after a research trip to the architecture in Wroclaw. The exhibition space itself is very multi-layered due to the various epochs, from the medieval period to the 1990s. I thought long and hard about how I could respond to this with a site-specific work. As the wooden walls, the light rails and the floor compete with the old building structure, I found it difficult to respond directly to the architecture of the exhibition space, so in the end, I only developed the discreet work with mirrors on the floor, which picks up on the grid of the tiles. While modernist architecture from the 1920s to new buildings influenced by modernism serves as the raw material in my work, the collage-like complexity of the Foto-Gen Gallery is the perfect setting and stage for the works.
By translating an image of space back into a spatial situation, I create new interpretations that sometimes reinforce or sometimes dissolve spatiality.
—Sinta Werner
J.G.: Let’s discuss the title of the exhibition, Layers. What does this term signify? How does the concept relate to the exhibition and your broader artistic practice?
S.W.: Layers refers, on the one hand, to the architectural layers of the exhibition space; in the work Gerüst und Gewand (Scaffolding and Garment), the pictorial space is staggered like the sceneries of a stage; in the collage series Anticipation of the Moment, glass strips placed in front of the work cause the photographic image of the buildings to dissolve into strips, which appear like a hologram in layered spatial levels. In the work Tectonic Interferences, a façade is cut into four vertical strips arranged transparently and diagonally, resulting in overlays and reinterpretations.
J.G.: The narrative of the exhibition is grounded in the space of the Foto-Gen Gallery, which reflects the history of Wrocław. How did this space inspire you at various stages of your work? What makes it unique? Do you have any favourite areas or sections of the gallery?
S.W.: I particularly like the centre room with the groined vault. It has a sacred effect on me. This prompted me to exhibit only the two small illuminated slide objects from the Broken Bits of Pieces series in the room so that the room itself could remain as empty as possible and stand on its own. The multi-perspective, fragmented arrangement of the large-format slides is given a special concentration by their placement directly under the groined vault.
J.G.: How do you reinterpret the city’s icons – “Sedesowce” by Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak, created in the 1970s, and why did you choose them as the starting point for your collages?
S.W.: While planning the exhibition, I had a large selection of architectural motifs and various ideas for realising them. In conversation with the curator and the director of the gallery, a need emerged that the architecture used should have a recognisable value, and should be an iconic building. Sedesowce immediately captivated me in a positive way.
The outstanding feature of the residential complex is the sweeping façade design with its curved concrete elements. Modernist architecture has made it possible to design the outer skin independent of the supporting structure and separate the shell from the static construction. Here the façade appears like a garment, a game of concealing and revealing. Through my intervention with laser cuts in the photographic surface, the photographic work appears like a model. In this way, I want to emphasise the forward-looking, utopian, almost futuristic character of the buildings from the 1970s. The laser cuts take up the basic forms of the façade and, through this abstraction, create a focus on the essential elements of the architectural design. At the same time, the haptic doubling of the geometric structures makes the image appear hyper-real, like a miniature world that you could step into. The division into four vertical layers is reminiscent of backdrops in a stage set.
The viewer, who walks past the picture from the side, experiences a similar suggestion of spatiality as the passer-by in the urban space. Viewed from the front, the picture appears as a hybrid between image and spatial representation. Viewed from the side, the exaggerated illusionism falls apart and one looks behind the scenes, so to speak, at structures that keep repeating themselves instead of opening new doors. As a symbolically charged building, the beloved and hated Sedesowce stands for modernist pioneering work, but also for the failed utopias of socialism.
As a symbolically charged building, the beloved and hated Sedesowce stands for modernist pioneering work, but also for the failed utopias of socialism.
— Sinta Werner
J.G.: Let’s dive deeper into your inspirations. Your work focuses on Wrocław’s modernism, which you view as a significant cultural legacy and an essential part of the city’s identity. What aspects of Wrocław’s history and urban landscape strongly inspire you? Have you similarly explored other urban centres in your artistic practice?
S.W.: My choice of buildings is very intuitive. When I stroll through unfamiliar cities, my gaze is particularly open. I get into a frenzy and look at the city through a filter, looking above all for geometric structures and interesting light and shadow compositions. As my photographic works are still going through a process in which something is cut out, folded, bent, scratched out and covered with strips of glass, only very specific façade views are usable. I have to anticipate this when exploring the city.
J.G.: Modernism played a crucial role in shaping Wrocław’s urban development, making the city’s architecture closely related to the model of German metropolises. As someone from Germany, how do you perceive Wrocław’s identity in terms of architecture, aesthetics, and history? What similarities and differences do you observe between Wrocław and Berlin, where you studied?
S.W.: For me, Wroclaw is a beautiful, inspiring city with a wealth of buildings from all eras. I see many similarities to Berlin. Before World War II, Neues Bauen and Bauhaus had a strong influence on the city. Wroclaw, like Berlin, is characterised by communism, which produced many prefabricated buildings in a mass style that I find rather depressing, but also more daring pioneering buildings such as Sedesowce.
J.G.: It’s striking to note the wide range of artistic techniques you employ – photography, collage, installations, and sculptures – all of which challenge the viewer’s perception. What was your aim in using such a diverse array of means of expression? In the era of globalisation and the overwhelming flow of information, do you believe artists need to adopt this approach to capture the viewer’s attention?
S.W.: My work is always a dialogue between the media and between image and space. In the photo, I want to break up the pictorial space and expand it into the spatial. And in the installation, I try to create the illusion of an image, for example in the room-specific installations in which the Photoshop user interface is transferred into real space. The technical solutions and the choice of medium are always the logical conclusion of an artistic idea. I also love experimenting and trying out new things. I only follow my own interests here and not what prevails in a world of image overload.
My work is always a dialogue between the media and between image and space. The technical solutions and the choice of medium are always the logical conclusion of an artistic idea.
— Sinta Werner
J.G.: The exhibition focuses on urban themes and the origins of modernism, rather than social or political issues. Why was this distinction so important to you?
S.W.: My work always focuses on the examination of perception. That is why I am more interested in formal and stylistic criteria in architecture than social and political ones. I like to keep my works open to interpretation and not prescribe a clear political stance or reading. In some works, however, the context of the buildings is so charged, for example in the series Raumhäutung (operational-technical sector of state security) or Passages Marginales (embassy buildings), that a socio-political interpretation is inevitable.
Sinta Werner’s exhibition, Layers, is open till March 16th at the Foto-Gen Gallery.
Supported by Foto-Gen Gallery.
