Maria Nowakowska, is a graduate of the University of Lodz, a doctoral student at the University of Lodz Doctoral School of Humanities. In recent years, she has become known to residents of Lodz as a passionate promoter of architectural heritage. Her attention is drawn primarily by the architectural detail, which was reflected in the names of the brands she runs: Łódzki Detal and Maria od detalu. For several years, she has also been interested in art in urban space – in particular outdoor sculpture.
Her passion for architectural ornamentation has also translated into the idea of the DetalFest Festival – Architectural Detail Festival, which has been organised in Lodz in the form of a biennial event since 2017. In this year's, fourth edition of the festival, the University of Lodz is a strategic partner. The exhibition "Różowe odcienie szarości" is one of the elements that make up the event’s rich programme.
The exhibition at Wozownia 11 is the first individual photo show in the portfolio of Nowakowska, who also deals with ceramics and sculpture. Dr Maciej Ryszka, an artist photographer and lecturer at the Lodz Film School, is a curator to the exhibition.
The words of Dr Ryszka should be recalled:
When Maria Nowakowska showed me her works for the first time, my first impression was that I was dealing with abstract painting. Knowing Maria's versatility and talent, I wasn't even surprised. Only after a while did I notice that next to colours, forms and textures, there are details revealing that these images are very subtle photograms.
These images were seen and photographed by Maria Nowakowska who was carefully traversing the city over several years. The contemporary French historian, philosopher and sociologist Michel De Certeau recognizes that "walking around the city", the wanderer's bodily practice – dynamic, relational, not giving a fully clear image – creates and produces the inhabited city. Thus, the act of walking, involves the act of cognition; as well as of creation.
Probably the most widely known activity of Maria Nowakowska is researching and popularising the architectural details of Lodz. Today, we are exploring another area of Maria's sensitivity. Or perhaps, treating architecture and, more broadly speaking urban space, as a living organism, we should, also based on the presented Maria’s photographs, expand the definitions known so far. The city is subject to erosion, nature gets into its tissue, mysterious palimpsests and ambiguous collages appear spontaneously on the walls. Who other than Maria Nowakowska could present this abstract and organic detail of the city to us with such competence and sensitivity?
The presented photographs are not large scaled and overwhelming enlargements. This, and also the fact that we are not separated from them by a layer of glass, enables us to enter an intimate relationship with them and experience art that begins in the imagination of the author, but manifests itself in the imagination of the viewer.
I must admit that I envy Maria Nowakowska's sensitivity to colour and subtle ability to use it. When I saw her photographs for the first time, I was amazed by the colours coming out of the centre, as when I first saw the colour photographs of her namesake Marie Cosindas. I thought to myself – “I would like to look at the city through the eyes of Maria Nowakowska”. Well, today all of us have been given such a unique opportunity...
During the exhibition opening, a conversation with the artist was held. It was led by Jakub Szczapiński – a fascinated with Lodz animator of culture, author of the artbook "Mury mają głos (czyli rzecz o bałuckim dzikim typo)" [Walls have a voice (or a story about a wild typo from Bałuty]".
The discussion focused primarily on the exhibition and the photographs presented there, which in a metaphysical way capture the architecture of Lodz, seen through her eyes, in a metaphysical way. And at the same time, it complements her stories about Lodz, also the architectural story. Maria Nowakowska: "The exhibition is a symbolic breath from detail, and at the same time its reverse".
In this particular case, the artist consciously uses photography as a medium to present images that could be photographs, paintings or something completely different. Therefore, the exhibition was not created as a result of photographing architectural details – it is a subtle disconnecting from what is the domain of research and scientific work on a daily basis. This is also a great moment to get to know another new face of Maria od detalu.
During the discussion, it turned out that Maria Nowakowska, taking pictures of objects which were often destroyed and time worn, did not intend to show their "turpist high" – as Kuba Szczapiński put it, but on the contrary, their hidden beauty, a riot of colours and palimpsest structure – evoking the words of the curator to the exhibition. It's like stripping objects of their original context and giving them (among other things, thanks to appropriate framing or double exposure) a different, impressionistic nature.
From 1 to 30 August, the exhibition is open on Thursdays and Fridays from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
On other days of the week, in order to see it you have to write to: komunikacja@uni.lodz.pl to make an appointment.
Text: Jolanta Sławińska-Ryszka (Communications and PR Centre, University of Lodz)
Photos from the opening of the exhibition: Grzegorz Habryn (HaWa)