"From the very beginning our aim was to look at theatre in a new way, to reach people, spaces and objects that are normally inaccessible or are not associated with theatre at all, yet are connected with it. In many cases photography became a pretext for meetings and for discovering new layers – emotions, tensions, gestures, symbolism, which are often invisible at first glance but constitute the true power of theatre" – Bartek Warzecha, workshop mentor.

"Produkcja przestrzeni" [The Production of Space] concerns marginal areas — transitional zones between the city and the non-place. It is here that ecological enclaves of silence and greenery and gated communities arise, but also — on land where swathes of forest have been cut down — gigantic hubs and distribution centres, road networks and ring roads.

Pareidolia - a phenomenon in which someone sees a pattern or image of something that does not exist.

This project continues a story begun in an analogue photography elective. That is when I found my way to the Kampinos Forest - the former village of Bromierzyk - and I kept returning to this place for the next 4 years. For I discovered in it a certain magic that I have not found in any other forest in Poland. I was drawn in and fascinated by the structures of the trees there and the story they are trying to tell. That is how I began to discover the world of these largest of land plants, to feel their power and to understand how they function on our planet. On top of that, I delved into the thread of ghosts and paranormal phenomena which, reportedly, have occurred in this patch of forest for hundreds of years. Thoughts arose - how is it possible that in this one place alone the trees are so unusually deformed? Is what I see really there?

Bromierzyk. Once a village.

A brutal war left only the Forest.

The forest, they say, has kept more.

At first I was drawn by the traces of human life, barely perceptible, which drew me in all the more. I returned regularly, in the autumn and winter season, gaining insight into the structures of these Largest of land plants, whose power overawed me. The raw, bare forest, me and the lens. And on top of that an aura of mystery and presence flowing from the trees. And as if they began to communicate with me, these very trees. Twisted, deformed, alive; so like us. The dead elements too seemed to be saying something, in an Invisible whisper.

Is it I who sees?

"Before us there was the forest, after us there will be the forest."

At the exhibition I will present photographs in the form of gelatin silver prints, developed in the darkroom using analogue technique.

"If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me."

Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale

The team of Foto Pracownia Wschodnia and the artists selected through an open call invite you to the exhibition "Ishmael".

The show is our interpretation of a journey into the world of imaginings and human fascination with the ocean and the so-called Great Water. It is also an encounter, in the space of visual art, with an element that from the beginning has drawn out of people the dream of taming it and paralysed them with fear of its vastness. Sailing with the wind, we look beyond the horizon; our navigator is art, and our companion on deck is the book "Moby Dick" by Herman Melville.

The exhibition presents a street reportage from a three-week journey from the south to the north of Vietnam. The photographs on show were taken during hours-long walks through the streets of cities such as Ho Chi Minh City, Dalat and Hanoi. The camera was guided by curiosity, at times outright nosiness; the twenty-four millimetre lens demanded closeness, craved confrontation. The title of the exhibition refers to journeys during which we steal into the daily rhythm of thousands of protagonists; it is an exchange of hundreds of glances, rarely longer than a few seconds. The flash is provocative, it is my greeting; it arouses interest, a smile, embarrassment; it meets indifference, reverie, joy, worry.

Being at the very centre of events, the idea was born of creating a video art piece, a visual diary of the journey, which together with the rest of the show is an attempt to materialise the rhythms passed along the way.

Ho Chi Minh City, Vũng Tàu, Mũi Né, Dalat, Nha Trang, Da Nang, Hanoi, Hạ Long

Curators: Julia Rapior, Wojciech Kacprzak

What is this project about?
About searching for a serene gaze.
About longing for carefree joy.
About friendship with emotions.
About making peace with oneself.
About trusting oneself.

(...)I know the fear of darkness and the musty smell of the cellar(...)

Close your eyes again. Think about the fact that you were born to dream. That all you dream about is love beautiful, passionate. Full of conscious sexuality. Unfulfilled. Read the poems of Walt Whitman. Could you say the same about the love of your dreams?

This project is a reinterpretation of a dream about white light. During the white nights the sun sets for a moment, but its light can still be seen on the horizon. The night sky is blue rather than dark. The white light in Finland can cause insomnia in some people, while others experience vivid, strangely intense dreams.(...)Finland had to cede part of Finnish Karelia to the Soviet Union after the Winter War of 1939-40. More than 400,000 evacuees from the ceded territories resettled in various parts of Finland, making up 10% of the total population at the time.

"The tradition of craft is evidently gaining ever greater significance in the realities of today's technologised world of mechanical production and the regrettable disappearance of the touch of the human hand from our mechanically mass-produced products and environments. In traditional cultures the inhabited world is the product of human hands, and the everyday sphere of work and life means a never-ending process of passing on manual skills and their products to other people; the world of traditional life is a continuous meeting and joining of hands belonging to successive generations."

"The Thinking Hand", Juhani Pallasmaa

The exhibition opening will take place on 24 September at 18:00, after the premiere of the documentary film about Pracownia Wschodnia, "Wejdź i porozmawiajmy o sztuce" [Come In and Let's Talk About Art]

exhibition open: 23 September – 1 October 2023

Wednesday–Friday 16:00–20:00
Saturday–Sunday 12:00–20:00
You are welcome!
FPW team

Event on FB

Finish the sentence you broke off.

This part of the exhibition refers to the views of Christopher Lasch, who analyses the growing selfishness and lack of empathy in society, and to his theory of the decline of narcissistic culture. All in all, the exhibition project "Let's MakeUs Dumb Again!" is an important and topical subject that allows for reflection on the impact of technology on our lives and society. ChatGPT