On Friday, 9th October, the exhibition Zofia Chometowska – the Polesie Mythologies will open at the Association for the Encouragement of Fine Arts [Zacheta] in Lublin. The show will be the first presentation of fragments of Zofia Chometowska’s archive researched by the Foundation.

Up until the 11th of September, the Asymetria Gallery will host an exhibition that is the second installment of new work by Krzysztof Pijarski who was invited to confront the archive of Zbigniew Dlubak, Polish photographer, painter, art theorist and critic. more photographs>>>
 

At the beginning of June we participated in the conference ”Archiving the Artist” held in the Tate Britain. The priority of our visit was to learn more about the methods of storing and cataloguing of archive materials employed by London institutions. Thanks to the hospitality of conservators, we had an opportunity to observe the Tate Britain Paper Conservation Department at work, we also visited a part of the Victoria & Albert Museum Photography collection.
 

Among the materials that make up Zbigniew Dlubak’s archive are catalogues of key exhibitions from the 1970s. Our recent discovery includes publications from Centro de Arte y Comunicación from Buenos Aires. Run by Jorge Glusberg, the CAYC in the 1970s was a significant center of interdisciplinary research on the art of Latin America of the day, which drew upon conceptual practices.

The project for the decor of the textile store in Warsaw’s “Koszyki” market hall was hitherto known thanks only to a handful of photographs. The archive has revealed more extensive documentation as well as negatives from subsequent stages of work. The store décor was prepared in 1962 and mentioned subsequently by Urszula Czartoryska, e.g. in her text Photography in the Service of Mercury. On the use of Photography in Commercial Décor [Fotografia w sluzbie Merkurego. O zastosowaniu fotografii w wystawiennictwie handlowym], featured in the magazine "Fotografia (issue 1962 nr 9). Dlubak also prepared plates which were meant to decorate a textile store for women, it is unknown however if the project was carried out.

From April 17 to May 8 the exhibition Peripheral Landscape [Krajobraz peryferyjny] was on view at the Association for the Encouragement of Fine Arts [Zacheta] in Lublin. The presentation was accompanied by a lecture on the oeuvre of Zbigniew Dlubak delivered by Karolina Lewandowska.

The archive of Zbigniew Dlubak revealed photographic material documenting the last stages of the construction of the 10th Anniversary Stadium in Warsaw. The photographs were apparently taken in the Spring of 1955. The documentation consists of thirty 6 x 6 cm negatives. Dlubak was the creator of one of the bas-relief sculptures which decorated the Stadium.
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In the course of research on Zbigniew Dlubak’s archive the Foundation extended an invitation to Krzysztof Pijarski, photographer, art historian and critic. Setting out to document the collection in photographs, Pijarski followed his own interpretative threads. In researching an archive, documenting a state prior to ordering, segregating, classifying, and distributing, etc. is of utmost importance.

In February 2009 Foundation employees traveled to the Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam. The visit was aimed at gathering knowledge of local standards for storing and digitizing photographs. Owing to the hospitality of the curators and conservators of the Museum, we were able to acquaint ourselves with the workings of the institution’s archive.

Research in the archive of Zbigniew Dlubak has shed light on a fragment of the least known period in the artist’s practice. In the 1950s, having withdrawn himself from artistic and public life, the artist abandoned avant-garde experiments in order to turn towards documentary photography. From 1950 to 1962, Dlubak photographed desolate cityscapes and scenes from small town life, turning their ugliness and gloomy atmosphere into an artistic value.