The exhibition “The Case of Łódź” by Artur Chrzanowski is an attempt to summarize the artist’s creative achievements to date. In the historic interiors of the Art Nouveau building, which currently houses the Gallery Willa of the City Art Gallery in Łódź, the artist will show most of the photographic series that he has created in the last 20 years of his artistic activity, also accompanied by videos and installations.

The artist has made photography the main means of his artistic expression. He has long been exploring its potential as a medium allowing for recording the surrounding reality. Among the photographic series at the exhibition we will see: “Monuments”, “Views from the Window”, “Postcards 2002/2009/2016”, “Light from the East”, “Collection from Łódź. Protective Colouration” or “Street Patrol”.

What is extremely important in Chrzanowski’s work is the “unique and personal message” that each work conveys. The artist uses the means of artistic expression available nowadays, nevertheless he applies them in a remarkably spare way. The viewer receives a concise, synthetic but extremely insightful, often ironic message, addressing contemporary socio-cultural problems, often perceived in terms of history, identity of people or places.

For years Chrzanowski has been oscillating around a few thematic areas important for him, which he divides into zones: the place, the archive, time, the word and silence. What is significant for him is the city in which he decided to stay after his studies – Łódź, which is the theme of most of his works, as in the series “Street Patrol” started in 2000, created, as the artist puts it, “out of the desire to comment on the surrounding reality in the context of observing the subconscious anxiety of the turn of the century and the accompanying fear of the future”, or in the site-specific work “Genius loci” from 2009, where the artist asked questions about the “spirit of the place” in which he lives.
According to the artist, art is “part of everyday life… Art can help you understand something, make you aware of something, remind you of something, which sometimes happens at a particular moment of contact with a painting, a book, a film, a piece of music, a performance…”

Curator: Małgorzata Dzięgielewska