"REM cycle - Hypertrophies" at the exhibition THE MARGINAL LANDSCAPE
new work "No man's zone" at the exhibition MARGINSM OF HISTORY
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Opening of both exhibitions: 23.09.2011

THE MARGINAL LANDSCAPE
CURATORS: MARIANNA MICHAŁOWSKA, JUSTYNA RYCZEK
ARTISTS: Norbert Banaszyk, Nathalie Grenzhäuser, Magdal Hueckel, Andrzej Kramarz, Wojtek Koykos, Jarosław Kozakiewicz, Katerina Mistal, Cecylia Malik, Rafał Milach, Laura Pawela, Basia Sokołowska, Melanie Wiora, Piotr Żyliński.
VENUE: “Arsenał” Municipal Gallery, Stary Rynek 6, Poznan, Poland
OPENING: 23.09.2011, 4 pm
DURATION: 23.09 - 30.10.2011

MARGINSM OF HISTORY

CURATOR: SŁAWOMIR TOBIS
ARTISTS: Sławoj Dubiel, Magda Hueckel, Grzegorz Jarmocewicz, Bogdan Konopka, Maciej Kuszela, Tomasz Michałowski, Wojtek Sienkiewicz, Waldemar Śliwczyński, Sławomir Tobis oraz Michał Zieliński
VENUE: SPOT, Dolna Wilda 87, Poznań, Poland
OPENING: 23.09.2011, 7 pm
DURATION: 23.09 – 17.10.2011

http://www.biennalefotografii.pl/english/

Description of exhibitions:

THE MARGINAL LANDSCAPE
Landscape is one of the fundamental “subjects” of photography, a favourite motif chosen by amateurs and professionals alike. On the one hand, modern photography has adopted a patronising approach to landscape photos, seeing them as the embodiment of amateur “sure-fire hits” and pictorial kitsch. On the other hand, however, it has in the past been often entwined with ideological contexts (to mention only the context of “national photography”), which made photographers shy away from landscape. At present we deal with a Renaissance of landscape photography fostered worldwide and in Poland by currents such as the “new documentary” and by the revaluation of the idea of nature. Human perception of landscape (Belting, Boehme) and landscape itself is growing into a metaphor of contemporary culture (Appadurai). In turn, ideas of contested natures (Phil Macnaghten and John Urry) propose a replacement of the nature / culture opposition with a reflection on such relations as innocence and wilderness; the animate and the inanimate, or nature as the margin of civilisation. Moreover, today landscape is used outside the context of nature as such; we use terms such as the natural IT environment or the urban landscape. The world around us expands and makes us re-consider our earlier beliefs and positions. Landscape may be one of the directions of inevitable reflection on the world around us.
“The Marginal Landscape” offers narrations about the shifting frontier between man and nature. We want to know the significance of landscape for today’s artists. We ask about the essence of the interaction of the human person and landscape: are we part and parcel of it or its enemies and destroyers? The exhibition likewise poses a question about landscape itself and its existence in culture as witnessed in the output of contemporary artists.
We perceive photography broadly, showing two-dimensional images made by means of photographic techniques, “photographic” paintings, films and installations, as well as digital visualisations used in the design of architecture. We cannot miss the significance of landscape on the Internet and that is why we also follow photo-blogs.

MARGINSM OF HISTORY

Many of the spots that prior to the end of World War I were places of everyday life of different nationalities and religions, ceased to unite and started to divide people in 1919 because of the newly established Polish-German border. Checkpoints were created, households were divided into parts lying on either side of the border. Life became more difficult overnight; in order to visit a neighbour you had to appear at a border checkpoint. Inhabitants found themselves marginalized in a physical and social sense. Photography tries both to show people and places and address the question of notions of paramount importance for humans: home, place, faith, existence, presence or absence.