Grzegorz Stefański: spill

The latest work by Grzegorz Stefański presented at the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art is a multi-channel video installation focusing on the fractions-of-a-second short inertia that the human body experiences during a fall. The installation oscillates between photography and film, inspiring a reflection on the meaning of a collapse in contemporary culture.

In his art, Stefański explores the possibilities and limitations of film. The themes he has investigated include the legacy of European cinematography, private history recorded in one’s body, cultural determinants of masculinity, and micro-choreographies of violence.

In the work presented in the Project Room, Stefański develops motifs present in his previous output. The materiality of the performer’s body remains the main theme. The artist focuses on the the course of inert flight just before falling to the ground. Fractions of a second are stretched into a sequence that takes dozens of seconds and becomes the basis for a monumental video installation. The body presented in this way becomes a metaphor of the moment of relaxation during a total loss of control. On the other hand, the installation emanates the tension produced by consciousness of the delayed-but-inevitable collapse.

The installation by Grzegorz Stefański can be interpreted not only as a reflection of the performer’s private history, but also as a commentary on the condition of the contemporary world in the times of falling governments, banks, buildings or entire legal systems.

Grzegorz Stefański (b. 1983) lives and works in London and Warsaw. A graduate of philosophy at the Jagiellonian University and photography at the University of Arts in Poznań (2013). In 2016, he earned his master’s degree at Miroslaw Balka’s Studio of Spatial Activities at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. In the same year he received the Felix Slade Award—a scholarship at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. In 2017 he won the Ivan Juritz Prize in London and the Grand Prix at the Biennale of Young Art, Rybie Oko 9 in Ustka. He made his debut in 2010 with solo exhibition at the Goldex-Poldex Cooperative in Kraków. Since then, he has exhibited his works at the Whitechapel Gallery in London (2018), Manifesta 11 in Zurich (2016), Pastificio Cerere Foundation in Rome (2014) and the NY Art Book Fair at MoMA PS1 in New York (2010). He has collaborated, among others, with Nowy Teatr in Warsaw, Królikarnia/National Museum in Warsaw, and Bunkier Sztuki in Kraków. More at grzegorzstefanski.com

Project Room at the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art is a program dedicated to young artists. From among six projects presented this year, the international jury will select two exhibitions and award them a 1st Prize of PLN 20,000 and 2nd Prize of PLN 10,000. The winners will be announced in January 2019.