- Fotofestiwal 2014 - http://www.fotofestiwal.com/2014/en/ -

Filmschool Imaginarium

Imaginarium – a “place of worship” of the imagination – is a series of photographic exhibitions, presented by the Photography Faculty of the Lodz Film School.

Imaginarium – by its very nature lacking a clear structure – is an indefinable set of real and unreal images, thoughts, and ideas, those created by the collective, as well as the individual ones – whether accepted or rejected. It escapes simple dichotomies of body and mind, spirituality and corporality, the sacred and the profane, the subject and the object. This set of world images (a kind of imago mundi), with both the real and the imaginary (pars imaginaria), does not indicate the nature of the images and their purpose.

The Film School’s main exhibition, entitled Darkroom [1], is playing with perception, examining our reactions and emotions. It is a test of media and genres in constant transformation, accompanied by “revolutions”, or, more often – a clear or hidden “ritual shift”, including the “rituals” of the viewer.

The five accompanying exhibitions are all imaginaria, looking for images of human nature and existence; metaphors of what is internal and private, as well as images that are poetic or veristic gestures of externality. It is also a search for symbols and rhythms of nature, in clash with both classic and postmodern means of expression.

Jakub Karwowski’s Rysa [Scratch] [2] is a visual story about his son Fryderyk, meant for Fryderyk himself, who will grow up one day and will be able to read the subtlety and beauty of emotions stored in the images of a “family photo album”.

The family theme also appears in Na skraju ogrodu [At the Garden’s Edge] by Igor Omulecki [3]; here, however, the privacy is enshrined into a cycle (circle) of nature, set against the personification of the power of the universe, introducing us onto new paths of meanings and the emotions it births.

Photographic confessions, both whispered and shouted, can be found in the collective exhibition of Film School students – Cichogłośno [Quietloud] [4]– here, the boundaries between the symbolic and the real are effaced, but it is always done in a different style, marked by the author’s personality.

Private journals of emotions are also presented in the works of Justyna Chrobot and Paweł Giza – OO/II [Object Oriented/Intimate Inventory] [5]. Here, the subject-object relation leans towards the relations between the mind, the corporality and desire. The visual theory of desire has been based on images, the Real and the Symbolic, the “desire phantasms”, which, in a reproduced order of perception, grant items and body fragments a different status that stems from the breach of meaning generalized by the society.

This breach – along with a strong emphasis on the functions of what is symbolic or becomes symbolic in the perception process – is present in series/sets of Robert Mainka, entitled Hojne łąki [ [6]Lavish Fields [7]]. Here, the space “between” the images is also important, and it creates numerous possible ways of “reading” the works, builds new trails, and sometimes – misleads us with associations seemingly too apparent.

The relations with an image, together with the relation between an author and a viewer, which are the themes of the main exhibition, as well as – to some extent – accompanying exhibitions, are (to paraphrase A. Kojève) a need of relation, in which the desire of the Desire [here: of the author] becomes the desire of the other person, so that the other person accepts the value of the desire, and recognizes this desire as their own.

EXHIBITIONS
Darkroom, collective exhibition of the Lodz Film School students and graduates [1]
opening 5.06, 7 pm., Art_Inkubator, festivl centre, Tymienieckiego 3

Jakub Karwowski, Scratch [2]
opening 4.06, 7 pm., Miejski Punkt Kultury Prexer, Pomorska 39

Igor Omulecki, At the Garden’s Edge [3]
opening 6.06, 8.30 pm., Galeria Wschodnia, Wschodnia 29

Quietlyloud, collective exhibition of the Lodz Film School students [8]
opening 4.06, 8 pm., Galeria OFF , Piotrkowska 138/140

Justyna Chrobot and Paweł Giza, OO/II [5]
opening 9.06, 7 pm., Dom Literatury , Roosevelta 17

Robert Mainka, Lavish Fields [7]
wernisaż 5.06, 7 pm., Art_Inkubator, festival centre, Tymienieckiego 3

LECTURES
8.06, 1 pm. Lech Lechowicz, The place of photography in History of Art – lecture, discussion, promotion of the book [9]  / 8.06, 1 pm., Art_Inkubator, festival centre, theatre hall, Tymienieckiego 3

14.06, 4 pm. Krzysztof Pijarski, (Post)Contemporary Histories of Paintings – lecture, discussion  [10] / 14.06, 4 pm., Art_Inkubator, festival centre, theatre hall, Tymienieckiego 3