The subject I undertake in Topography of relations is the difference between our intuitive understanding of time and the precise, reasonable possibility of capturing the knowledge contained in it. It is a kind of objectified record of intuition, in which a specific structure of procedures was imposed on direct experience.
Topography of Relations as a whole is participation in the process, a personal performance, the recording and documentation of which became material for the construction of two parallel structures: the photographic works entitled “Maps” and video works called “Images”. In the titles, I refer to certain analogies and associations that I want to evoke and provoke. The name I have given to photographic works is related to their function and form as a two-dimensional representation of reality and their symbolic reference to the place. This is what a map does. The map is executed according to specific rules, using agreed contractual, graphic means. The structure of my works also has a division - it corresponds to the time divisions in my experience. It also reflects the principle that I assume in the process of its recording.
If we look at the form of the Map and its orderly structure, we will see that its visual construction carries further meanings. Many of them refer to the understanding of time and memory as a repository of what is important and valuable to us, that which we collect. Maps are also a record of simultaneity - the sum of our knowledge, observations - scrupulously collected, meter by meter. Discovered after all, over time, in some order, but when it is actually collected and recorded, it takes on a simultaneity. We seldom think about this aspect of the map, we perceive it only functionally and as a finality. We can analyze the traditional map as a fragment and as a whole. It is a similar case here. The final composition of my “Maps” is the cumulation, but at the same time the reproduction of a certain order.
What is measured by the Map’s topographical grid - portions of space-time or memory frames? Is it possible to watch time at a single glance? What is the cumulation of time in one image and what are the dozens of connected vessels? These are just a few of the questions I ask myself and the audience.
Video images were created with reference to Maps. Maps in their structure separate and merge. “Images”, in spite of the video medium used, is more concerned with the convention of photographic recording of duration, captured in one picture. They are implemented, like “Maps”, in relation to direct experience, however, the methodology and form were assumed earlier. It is always one frame and one shot. The recording time is equal to the time of direct experience. Ultimately, I show these works in the form of installations: images that in reception hide their time. Looped, they hide their beginning and end which are to be marked by the viewer.
The Topography of Relations was presented at the FF Gallery (2010) - an individual exhibition, accompanied by a publication called “Topography of Relations. Timescapes” with the text by Grzegorz Przyborek. The works from the project were presented as part of the exhibitions: # 20latfotografipwsftitv - Art Propaganda Centre, Łódź (2013), accompanied by a catalogue with a DVD, and at the Avant-garde 2.0 exhibition. - Polish Institute in Vienna (2017)