Exhibition opening: 09.09.2021 – 6:00pm
Duratin of the exhibition: 10.09 – 03.10.2021
Curator: Stanisław Małecki
Some of our memories remain with us for a long time, they come back at very different moments in our lives, constantly making themselves felt. Other memories can be very fleeting. Sometimes they are revived under the influence of some information from the media or a story from life of someone who experienced it with us and is retelling it to us from his or her perspective. In moments like those our memory can change its shape, be formed by history heard from elsewhere. Recently, more and more attention has been paid to the phenomenon of false memories. We talk about it when a person, or even a group of people, is convinced that some situation took place, even though it never really happened. So why our memory is so deceptive?
Filip Wierzbicki-Nowak is seeking for the answer to this question. The notes of the artist’s personal memories presented at the exhibition become an attempt of visual representation of the structure of memory.
The author constructs presented images and objects using layers. There is such a strong relationship between the colored patches, handwritten notes and weaves of lines delineating the shapes and contours of objects and people. In each of the presented cycles, a kind of linear drawing, built with the use of various materials, shapes the impression of spatiality and becomes a negative reflection of the visible reality. When viewed from different perspectives, these lines seem to vibrate and convey the impression of a moving image – a fragmented and partitive memory or dream.
Some images at the exhibition resemble cartographic images – similar to mental maps of memories. Hence the eponymous territories, referring to the author’s memory. They are both real areas and places that do not have a clear boundary in time and space. However, they are not only personal spaces. The artist wants to share them with the audience, and wonders how much distinguishes individual from collective memory.