BOGUSŁAW BACHORCZYK / ARTE EXCENTRICA OR CLEAN WATERS, STITCHES, PERFUMERIES AND VEGETABLE GARDENS / exhibition within the artist residence
BOGUSŁAW BACHORCZYK
ARTE EXCENTRICA OR CLEAN WATERS, STITCHES, PERFUMERIES AND VEGETABLE GARDENS
exhibition within the artist residence
This exhibition follows hot on the heels of Bogusław Bachorczyk’s residential project, which has been delivered throughout the year at the Centre for Creative Activity in Ustka. Inspired by research conducted by the French botanist, anthropologist and linguist, André-Georges Haudricourt, Bachorczyk deals with the relationship between man and nature. During his several stays at the seaside, the artist, who hails from Kraków, addressed all those members of the local community who are interested in the broadly defined flora. The group included individuals who owned potted plants, as well as those who spent their free time pottering in the garden. In his statement, the artist explained that it is worth everyone’s while “to look at the garden as a testimony of man’s relationship with the world and, at the same time, as an image of dependencies arising from the accepted moral and philosophical doctrines. The garden becomes a bridge between culture and nature. Man grows plants, and in return, the plants and the garden become home for man. Plants are present in art, science and religion; utensils, lamps, flowerbeds, still life and landfills; food, magic herbs, medicinal herbs; silage, jam and tincture; perfumeries, conservatories, vegetable gardens; rituals, symbols, plant morphology and philosophical doctrines.”
The exhibition is an attempt at invoking real and imaginary places of human communion with nature. The artist wrote that the presented videos and objects aim to “stitch our world together and reclaim its history, memory, culture, and so-called alien elements, to extend it, to make it complete, and to stage direct its real fiction.” It is also worth noting that the practice of “gluing together”, assembling and shifting the material and mental habitat and habitus of man now serves as the modus operandi of Boguslaw Bachorczyk. For at least a decade, the artist has been adept at stitching his works, stories and places together, often resorting to perverse sensuality. The exhibition features a selection of videos shot in Ustka, clay sculptures and objects found at the seaside, which the artist has “reconfigured” and redefined.
Bogusław Bachorczyk (born 1969) – painter, sculptor, graphic artist, media artist, curator of exhibitions. Habilitated Doctor, Assistant Professor at the Drawing Department at the Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. Graduate of the sculpture class at the Kenar’s High School in Zakopane and the Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. Grant to the City of Nuremberg, Józef Czapski’s Grant (study visit to France). His work has been presented at more than 50 solo and group exhibitions, including: The Bunkier Sztuki in Kraków, the Photographic Museum in Kraków, Galeria Zderzak in Kraków, Galeria Atak in Warsaw, Galeria ABC in Poznań, Galeria ASP in Gdańsk, Galeria Labyrynt in Lublin, the Baltic Gallery of Contemporary Art in Słupsk, the Tatra Museum in Zakopane . His artistic achievements include a number of long-term creative concepts and projects, such as a sketchbook (since 1986) and the project “Pracownia Czysta 17” (since 2003). In his art, often presented in the form of installations with elements of performance, he combines various media. He creates illustrations for actors, dancers and poets, and has a number of artistic books to his name. He also deals with the legacy of great artists (incl. Iwaszkiewicz, Siebald, Has, Rodchenko, Nijinsky, Hasior). His other pursuits include history and time, identity, the individual discovery of the private past, bricolage and combining craft techniques with modern media.