Zygmunt Rytka, My place
26.06. – 12.07.2008
Description of Place was one of the first exhibitions by Zygmunt Rytka. After over 30 years the title comes back only slightly changed into MY PLACE.
Zygmunt Rytka's artistic progress has been difficult and complex, yet extremely consistent. The axis of almost all his artistic activity is time, its infinity, and especially its material and real dimension.
The artist's works are strongly related to photographic experiments of the 1970s. They deal with mass media issues and document the life and works of the Polish neo-avant-garde movement. However, his art is highly individualistic, especially the main series which has been developed since its first exhibition entitled Complementary Pictures in the Mala Gallery. It has been inspired by nature and the fascination for the eternity of a stone or the transience of a candle flame which led to a more general insight into the transformation of permanence perceived in an incidental, momentary or waning shape.
Since the artist's exhibition entitled Continual Infinity his analysis and experiments have been closely bound up with a real place on earth. The mountain creek Bialka near the small village of Jurgow in the Podhale region has become an inherent part of his art and the main point of reference in his artistic quest. The element of water, the primeval source for all energy - a rapid mountain stream which left an indelible mark on the artist during summer holidays he spent on its banks in his childhood and which has inspired him ever since. It enabled him to notice the eternal matter of a stone and the inexhaustible energy filling the universe.
A mountain river and passing time are equally difficult to stop. Rytka confirms it by saying, 'I see that everything I've been doing so far is coherent and emerges from my previous experience – I constantly abandon an intellectual quest and come back to the elements, to water, to the beginning...' At the same time he returns to the place where all his artistic activities stem from.
The artist's latest works also come back to the source where his dialogue with nature sprung into being. Water is present in all twelve parts of the exhibition, but in many different ways and radically changed in form and meaning: from a dynamic self-portrait in the rapids to abstract matter recorded by means of the latest technique in digital photography. These works are analytical and resolve the matter into its fundamental elements which corresponds to consecutive depixelising and results in totally abstract presentation of flowing water. These two abstract works, when devoid of the context of the remaining photographs on the exhibition, would be but a mere play with the matter and could be seen as philosophical embodiments of the long-term recording.
Despite 30 years of artistic activity Zygmunt Rytka remains a loner in his attachment to nature and its great mystery. His photographs and video realisations deal with strong energy interactions, search for bonds with the space and the universe and attempt to find the heart of the matter. Striving for an unattainable aim, apparently pointless but extremely consistent in its adherence to the adopted guidelines, has been characteristic of the artist's activity for years. Rytka's every move is intellectually calculated and planned, yet the outcome often remains in the sphere of emotions and feelings, intensified by the dynamics of his artistic creations.
Our times and their hectic pace of life involve young artists in a constant competition in which they try to be original by all means but often involuntarily copy previous artistic works. Zygmunt Rytka's output is original and unique and as such will undoubtedly inspire many artists (and maybe has already inspired some). One only has to be careful and avoid being taken in by new technologies and ways of recording and transforming images, since it may appear that continuity of an artistic quest and the ability to focus on the essence matter most. Zygmunt Rytka's sequential, analytic and arranged photography, as well as his performances, video realisations and unconventional installations have been filled with appropriate content and used according to the intended purpose, thus forming a coherent yet apparently diverse output.
However, in his text Beside Art Zygmunt Rytka expresses his doubt:
Ideas, theories, programmes, movements, trends, manifestos – no one will ever be able to grasp them all, combine or coherently describe.
It seems that his oeuvre has so far proven the contrary. It consists of complementary pictures (as one of his cycles is entitled). His photographs, installations and video films combine into the ever-growing whole of this rich and consistent artistic production which has already become an integral part of contemporary art.
Marek GrygielWarsaw, May 27, 2008.
Zygmunt Rytka
Born March 11, 1947 in Warsaw. Lives and works in Warsaw and Podkowa Lesna. Since 1972 has participated in over 150 group exhibitions and since 1974 has had 32 one-man shows. Since 1979 member of the Association of Polish Art Photographers (ZPAF). Awarded ZPAF diploma and medal for 'outstanding creative achievement in photography', medal on the twentieth anniversary of the Photographic History Museum in Cracow, 2007 and the Ministry of Culture Special Award for 'rendering considerable services to Polish culture in the field of photography', 2007.
Self-taught Artist.
Works in photography and video art. For many years has been co-operating with a mountain creek Bialka, a place where his two series entitled 'Complementary Pictures' and 'Continual Infinity” originated. Assuming that stones last forever and symbolise the eternity of Nature he sets them in motion in his installations, thus questioning the statics inherent in them ('Dynamic Objects', 2002 - ).
Since the 1970s has been active in the neo-avant-garde movement as both artist and artistic documentarian. In 1974 had his first individual exhibition entitled 'Time Units' in the Remont Gallery in Warsaw. From 1975 to 1977 worked in the Wspolczesna Gallery in Warsaw. From 1980 to 2002 co-operated with the Mala Gallery in Warsaw, where he had nine exhibitions (seven of which were individual). During the martial law in Poland took part in artistic activities in the Strych Gallery in Lodz. In 1974 – 2000 made a series called 'Private Collection' – his own record of the artistic circle he was associated with. For twenty years from 1979 to 1999 documented by photography performances in numerous theatres in Warsaw, including Studio, Ochoty, Ateneum, Dramatyczny and Prezentacje.
His works can be found in Art Museum in Lodz, National Museum in Wrocław, Centre for Contemporary Art – Ujazdowski Castle (Mala Gallery archive) in Warsaw, Photographic History Museum in Cracow, Museum of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Wymiany Gallery in Lodz, BWA Galleries in Lublin and Zielona Gora, Artoteka in Zielona Gora, Centre of Polish Sculpture in Oronsko, National Museum in Warsaw and private collections (i.a. the Bienkowski brothers and W. Jedrzejewski).
My place
It's the year 2008.
So many years when compared with human life.
For the Universe it's but a mere experiment noticed only by civilised mankind on this breadcrumb among millions of Galaxies.
…and we consist mainly of water…
My place in three spaces:
- gallery – bounded by the walls
- Earth – bounded by the atmosphere
- Universe - boundless
