point of view
In the text “On Other Spaces”, Michel Foucault describes the concept of zones accumulating various spaces, calling them heterotopias – “counterplaces” where real places found in culture “are simultaneously represented, contested and reversed”[1]. Łukasz Prus-Niewiadomski’s exhibition “Point of view” is based on two specific heterotopias: the venerable institution of a museum and a child’s room with its fairy-tale aesthetics. Both the museum and the area where children play are areas that are to some extent outside what is usually considered “normal” perception and action – a mode subordinated to utilitarian tasks and life activities. These places push you beyond the functional template, forcing you to carefully observe, be creative and non-linear in thinking and interpreting. It can be said that these are spaces that change the center of gravity of looking at the world, i.e. the point of view in the title, which is understood here very broadly: not only as an adopted perspective or a position taken when considering a given issue, but also as a condition that determines our perception, ability to think and concentrate, affecting both emotions, expressed judgments and values.
The idea of museum exhibition halls – as a space intended to create optimal conditions for viewing exhibits – is analyzed in the artist’s work, showing this optimum as completely illusory. The aim of this procedure, however, is not to ridicule the institution, but rather to raise awareness of the illusory nature of perception itself, limited and dispersed by countless factors. Sight itself, the dominant sense and often identified with perception itself, is the sense most susceptible to illusions. It is also a sense that is potentially the least prone to reflection, “sliding” over shapes, narrowing the horizon of cognition, because it is unable to cope with the elementary manifestations of reality – the imagination, developed on images from our environment, is unable to cope with the quantum micro world, and on a macro scale, the visual the vast majority of the material content of the universe is inaccessible. The Museum’s work also raises the issue of the distribution of “knowledge”. Referring to Odo Marquard’s reflection: “[…] experience as a scientifically artificially created empiricism becomes a matter of specialized experts equipped with equipment: one’s own experiences are not acquired on one’s own, they are obtained ready-made. Therefore, the mental form of our world relies more and more on hearsay knowledge: it becomes news that is – in part – managed by the media. Modern reality is increasingly taking on the tint of semi-reality, in which fiction and reality become indistinguishable”[2].
Paradoxically, it is the world of playing with a child, with its entire arsenal of fairy-tale fantasy, that is the place where fundamental issues return – the child’s first questions are a confrontation of reality with fiction, an attempt to learn the truth despite the “semi-reality”. In this context, the child becomes a figure of a “pure” mind, untainted by dogmas, ideologies and patterns, while the parent becomes a figure of one who explains, but also “manages knowledge” – able to “open” or “close” the child’s mind.
And opening and closing, attracting and distracting attention are the key issues addressed by Łukasz Prus-Niewiadomski. The state of motherhood/fatherhood and being an “attentive observer” make us fall out of the rut of cognitive routine. This is a time conducive to “sensitivity” of seeing and gaining new perspectives. It is this sensitive vision, the effort of cognitive powers and imagination that seems to be extremely important at a time of increasingly sharp polarization of opinions, inflated ideologized narratives, and progressive media manipulation and one-sidedness of information management. In order to notice, and not just look, critical perception is necessary – “sensitization” leading to verifying knowledge, updating the context and testing values. Moments of conversation with a child and contact with art create the opportunity to examine ideas about the world and constantly “gain” a point of view, because we should not “have” a point of view, but constantly build it.
/Text: Łukasz Kropiowski/
The project was presented at the Gallery of Contemporary Art in Opole and at Bacalarte Gallery in Warsaw.
papo / video-performance / loop