Spot Gallery and Office for Photography announce the opening of an exhibition Clear of People by Michal Iwanowski
The exhibition opening and the interview with the artist will be held on Monday, 11 September at 7 pm.
In Spot Gallery, Michal Iwanowski, the Polish photograph living in the UK, is going to present his project Clear of People, recording the author’s reconstruction of his grandfather’s and uncle’s epic journey through precarious landscape. On their three-month-long fugitive journey from Soviet captivity in Siberia to their native Poland, they crossed more than 2000 kilometres during night-time in order to remain undetected and hidden from other people. Around 70 years later, Michal Iwanowski embarked on his own journey, faithfully retracing the journey of his ancestors and documenting the process with his camera. The series of photographs captured during this personal “odyssey” is the basis of the project Clear of People, while the work was subsequently published in a form of a photobook.
In his work, Michal Iwanowski continuously explores the connection between landscape and memory, basing his photo-projects on his pursuit of micro-histories, individual memories and fading traces. The author interprets such narratives, which would otherwise be lost with time, through photography and text and thereby establishes a strong synergy between a personal story and landscape captured in the photographs. Thus, the work Clear of People represents a certain study of nature filled with stories about displacement, loss and searching. The series is not just an extraordinary testimony of one personal experience but also a universal dedication to all who, even today, are fleeing war zones and, in pursuit of safety, find themselves in similar situations.
As Iwanowski states, “what had started as a quiet tribute soon turned into a meditation on the strength of the human spirit.” His photographs are much more than a literal dedication to landscape – they testify about the fact that there are no “innocent” places and that every path we take is marked by layers of suffering and hope.
Michal Iwanowski was born in 1977 in Poland, and since 2001, he has been living in Cardiff where he works as a photographer and a lecturer at Ffotogallery. He graduated in Documentary Photography from the University of Wales in Newport. He won several prestigious awards and since 2004, his works have been regularly featured at exhibitions and photography festivals throughout Europe and the world.
The exhibition will be opened till 6 October 2017.
A reading group and a panel discussion will be held during the exhibition. More information on these programmes is soon to be published.
–
Opening hours of Spot Gallery
Mon – Fri / 4 – 8 pm
Or by appointment
