Martin van Zomeren is pleased to present the first solo exhibition in the Netherlands of Wojciech Bąkowski.
Born and currently living in Poznań, critics claim that his work reflects a new-found internationalism which references the developments of modernism whilst simultaneously engaging with the legacy of the Former East.
Visual artist, but also musician, poet, performer and director of animated movies, his practice seems diverse but is marked by a new intimate order. Wojciech creates a new world, hyperrealistic, indifferent to psychology and sociology, never stylizing.
On occasion of the solo exhibition at Martin van Zomeren, Bakowski presents three new recent works that completely fill the space with sounds and images. Every work is an attempt to find a real value, translating one abstract language into another, in order to free it from unnecessary elements.
In the first work Wojciech translates impressions into abstract forms. 'Impressions Spread Out' is an audio installation with five loudspeakers, each producing a different specific sound. These sounds refer to an urban landscape experienced in a more intimate way: the breathing through the nose of a walking person, the sound of different objects commonly carried along in a bag such as bottle of water, alcohol, keys and the sound of a siren of an ambulance in the distance.
However one tries it is impossible to escape the senses: synaesthesia is a necessary element in his artistic vocabulaire and, according to Wojciech, every artwork always has a synaesthetic dimension. In 'Impressions Spread Out' shape and dimensions of the speakers mirror the sounds. In doing this Bakowski visualizes the sounds and gives them hierarchy and order. The result is a minimalistic installation suggesting a static order in great contrast with the liquid matter of sounds. It recalls also the absorbing view of a city.
The second work, 'The Expositions of Problems', is a sound animation movie without narration. Each scene presents a different issue. It is a movie dealing with language, memory and society and every issue is translated into abstract forms. A poem goes with the images and poem and abstract forms reciprocally comment each other. The density of the movie is balanced by a formal minimalism. The voice, that is Wojciech's voice, never waves, does not show any emotion and the artist again reduces every unnecessary element. One hears no other sounds but Bakowski's voice; when another sound occurs it goes without the sound of his voice or without images. Never more than two elements are allowed at the same time.
This is probably the most disciplined movie of Wojciech, driven by the urgency to find real value in-between poetic and visual language.
The third work, 'Entoptic Screening', is a silent animated film showing an eye watching a white wall. It is the most minimalistic work of the exhibition but at the same time a statement of Bakowski's 'credo'. The image is not clean, it is slightly speckled and every few seconds the eyelid blinks. The viewer thinks that since he is seeing through the eyes of the artist, he can see exactly what the artist sees. However this will never be possible: the eye of the viewer cannot avoid blinking too and it is always in a different rhythm.