Grzegorz Jarmocewicz is a visual artist who has been active in the field of photography since 1989. He gained recognition with a series of staged photographs entitled Props Room (1995). It is a description of the human condition that is a postmodern form, using the language of Dadaism in response to the changes taking place in the post-communist society, drawing new role models from the Western world of consumption. His work is often based on signs and symbols deeply embedded in cultural systems, considering the cyclical nature of changes in human life in a historical context (series: Traces II, 1996; Usque ad finem, 1997; Tempus tenere, 2008; Usque ad hesternum, 2011), as well as personal (Ire ex praeteritis, 2012; Ire ex, 2013). The structure of these cycles evolves from intermedia activities, using a photographic emulsion on canvas and a photo-object, to classical work with multiple exposure and a 4x5 inch pinhole camera. In the following years, his creative attitude remains defined by his photographic experiment and the disapproval of the community’s historical amnesia. Two projects are being created, the elements of which are large-format photographs prepared using a light-sensitive emulsion applied to an aluminum substrate. One of the messages of these works are the “mirrors endowed with memory”, as Oliver Wendell Holmes described daguerreotypes in the 19th century, that the artist evokes to. Both projects are presented below. The first one, To the Memory of Reflected Gazes from 2014; is an artistic action within the framework of the Art Festival “Bridge” / Internationales Kunstfestival „Die Brücke” festival (2014), held simultaneously in Słubice and Frankfurt (Oder). The next - Every past moment. Photography as Memory (2015) is referring to the most important and fundamental properties of the medium of photography. Its idea is based on social and historical memory contained in a photographic image. The metaphor of return connecting the past with the present became the basis for artistic research and references to the multicultural history of the city where Jarmocewicz was born. Historical motifs also determine the set of works, which was created in just seven days of the pandemic thaw that occurred at the turn of spring and summer 2020, when the borders were opened for a short while. As part of the artistic residency of the Kaunas Photo International Festival of Photography, Grzegorz Jarmocewicz collected material under the title On both sides of the border. Why do I fall in love with Lithuania, which has evolved to enrich with more elements for A Line on a map. Cultural threads of the Polish-Lithuanian borderland. It is a kind of journey through places inhabited in the Middle Ages by Baltic tribes (Yotvingians and Prussians), whose direct heirs are contemporary Lithuanians, and an attempt to verify the historical identity of people currently living there, including Poles. The last series of works is Camera Opresiva (2022/23). It is a multi-segment, multimedia research project on the impact of photographic and film images on the functioning of modern society. Its elements reach for cognitive and descriptive references of mechanical recording devices used for surveillance and control of the human community on multiple levels. The project examines the impact of algorithms and artificial intelligence on our behaviour. Reveals the mechanisms of deepfakes and image GANs. Poses questions relating to commonly used polarisation and oppression. The Camera Opresiva exhibition was unceremoniously censored and closed by the authorities due to the metaphorically revealed tools of manipulation used by the right-wing nationalist government controlling the Polish people in 2015-23.
Grzegorz Jarmocewicz Polish visual artist, photographer, educator, curator, juror of international photography competitions, reviewer of portfolio reviews, co-founder and Artistic Director of the International Photography Festival Białystok INTERPHOTO – one of the most prestigious photography festivals in Central and Eastern Europe. Author of texts on photography. He graduated with honours from the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznan in photography. He received his doctorate at the National Film School in Łódź and his habilitation at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk. He is currently a professor at the Institute of Fine Arts at the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn. Grzegorz Jarmocewicz’s works have been exhibited in such cities as Berlin, Brescia, Bratislava, Budapest, Dresden, Yokohama, Kaunas, Poznań, Rotterdam, Tallinn, Warsaw and Wrocław. The artist’s works can be found in private collections and at the District Museum in Suwałki, CCA Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw, Museo Ken Damy di Fotografia Contemporanea, Brescia, Italy, CCA Suwałki, CLZ Białystok.
Reproduction thanks to the financial support of statutory research of ISP UWM, thanks to the courtesy of the Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw (owner of the Props Room series, 1994-95).
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