Slawomir Brzoska was born 22 April 1967 in Szopienice (Upper Silesia/Poland). Studied at Institute of Art at the Silesian University, branch in Cieszyn/Poland. Head of 9th Space Activities Studio at The University of Arts in Poznań/Poland and Space Activities Studio at The Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice/Poland. Working across sculpture, installation, video, land art and performance art.
Weaving geometrical figures with kilometers of string, I have always emphasised the moment of work over the final effect. Work in the secluded gallery was a kind of meditation, when I had to watch almost every step, keep an eye on the tension of more and more lines, their parallelism. It required concentration on what is here – and – now. I have realized at some point that I am doing no less than travel, wandering in the spaces between the points set on walls, the floor and the ceiling in advance. The three – dimensional drawing is a trace of my body and hands left in the space. The installation is an image of wandering I had done, to the world that was visualized at its end.
The space is a kind of vessel which I fill in with the installation. I do not repeat the configuration in other spaces. Each work is based on different construction rules, dependent on natural characteristics I encounter in the space. I pay attention to architecture, construction details, windows, arrangement, lighting etc., to find a form which will enter a dialogue with the surroundings.
No less important in my experiencing the world is real travelling. Desert areas became especially close to me since my first trip to India, Asia and the Middle East. In 2002 I wrapped in wool a postglacial boulder found on the bank of the River Yenisei in Tuva. Hundreds of its lines were superimposed on the stone. This was how the first “Journey sketch” came into being.
Stones have been archetypal since time immemorial. Its permanence was tied with ancestor worship. Working with stones I invoke the collective memory of the human race, where special kinds of stones formed a centre, a reference point. Wool is rather nomadic while stones are permanent. We may therefore say that the gesture of wrapping is a combination of the two rudimentary manners of existence of the human being.
SławomirBrzoska
Brzoska creates spaces within space using linear means of expression. He does it in a poetic and moving way. His artistic creations reveal luminous transparency, ephemerality and elusiveness that extremely evocatively influence our imagination. "The process of creating installations, my being on the way, is more significant to me than their actual completion," the artist once said. Both his statements and art display certain themes related to Indian philosophy, according to which there is nothing but movement. Everything forms a unity. All things are merely a sequence of changing states.
Brzoska always involves space and time in his artistic activities. His installation filled with open work veils of string and metaphysical light from the material point of view does not differ from the ball of string coiled by the artist at the end of the given exhibition.
Brzoska's works represent two fundamental values. One of them is visual harmony - or beauty - a category consciously preserved by the artist, although for almost half a century it has been rejected by artists of both the younger and the older generation. The other and most important value of Brzoska's artistic work is its general message and meditative aspect.
