Cafe Club Aquarium
vernissage: Tuesday, 29 August, 6 pm.

_______________________________________________________________________

Premier photographic exhibition by Wojtek Kukuczka, exploring the theme of Silesia - a region especially dear to the artist's heart.

"Silesia has inspired me for years - an impelling force making me shoot almost inadvertently. I began my adventure by photographing local streets, workers' houses, factories and people. There is no telling what prompted this fascination. It's just the way it is. I'm hardly able to cut myself off or be liberated from this passion, and above all, I can't explain it away. There were times when I thought: It's over, but then I would always restart. Whenever it seems complete, the theme always inevitably returns to be rediscovered and redefined. My photographs invariably focus on people - a broad range of characters from different walks of life: workers, traders, students and senior citizens. I wanted to grasp the widest possible cross-section of Silesian community embedded in typical Silesian aesthetics, as exemplified by such painters as Michał Cała."
Wojtek Kukuczka

The title: Silesia - Images on the Run is a reference to Henri Cartier-Bresson, one of the most outstanding photographers of the twentieth century, regarded as the father of photojournalism, who described a decisive moment just before the shutter closes and time is frozen on the photographic film (H. Cartier-Bresson, Decisive Moment ). Wojtek Kukuczka wonders if the image frozen on film could be perpetuated, or in other words, whether the decisive moment could be stretched in time.

"I attempt to go beyond the classic canon of so-called Silesian photography. You might say that my shots are quite unique. I wanted to capture their very essence in motion - an area inaccessible for classic photography.
The starting point is a photographic record perceived in the context of the result, rather than the process - the moment of exposure, i.e. the time between the opening and closing of the shutter. For this, I use my own technique which I call continuous photography. It oscillates across the boundary between photography and film, allowing one to record the moment of creation of a photographic image."

Wojtek Kukuczka

The exhibition Silesia - Images on the Run is a forerunner of a larger project, currently developed by the artist as part of his doctoral dissertation supervised by Professor Witold Jacykow at the Art Department of the Cieszyn branch of the University of Silesia in Katowice .The exhibition will take the form of a classic photographic display - the images themselves will be presented with the use of LED displays.

Wojtek Kukuczka (born in 1984) degree from the Department of Photography and Multimedia at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław (2009); participated in more than 50 photographic exhibitions, including 16 solo shows, winner of the best Polish Film Award at the Mountain Films Festival in Lądek Zdrój (2010); founder of Galeria Negatyw in Katowice, head of Fundacja Wielki Czowiek (the Great Man Foundation) established by the family of the outstanding Polish climber, Jerzy Kukuczka - father of the artist; curated a dozen or so exhibitions of such artists as Zdzisław Beksinski, Jan Bułhak, Gaspard Felix Tournachon (Nadara); four-time winner of the Young Culture Creators Award announced by the City of Katowice.

His main artistic pursuits include photography, multimedia, graphic design and film.

The exhibition runs from 29 August to 24 September 2017.