Przemek Dzienis – Good Grief

Exhibition of new, personal works by Przemek Dzienis, one of the most interesting contemporary Polish photographers and filmmakers.

Przemek Dzienis is widely known mainly for his photographs and films, both artistic and commercial. Good Grief is his first exhibition after a long break – it is a personal and intimate journey into the depths of the artist’s memory. There will be some photographs, of course, but this time it is the object that is his medium of choice.

The exhibition, which in author’s own words “is a reflection on memories passing by, on what we remember”, is made up of small sculptures, photos, video and audio recordings. Dzienis transforms memories into images and then into objects, which “are not the representations of actual situations, but individual impulses abstracted from reality, which enter our minds, and there they connect with each other and change meaning”. The artist goes beyond the conventional understanding of photography and concentrates on how memory works, on good and bad memories, accompanied by ambivalent emotions.

Przemek Dzienis has always approached images with his own, specific perspective, there has been more staging, designing and constructing in his work than documenting. Good Grief is a surreal experience resembling a visit to a cabinet of curiosities or looking at a fetishist collection. In this exceptional exhibition, all that is left of the photos is a memory.

Curator: Adam Mazur

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The tenement of Hilary Majewski, Włókiennicza 11

DID YOU KNOW that Włókiennicza (Textile Street) was once named Kamienna (Stone Street)?

Hilary Majewski’s tenement house at Włókiennicza 11 was built between 1883 and 1886. It was designed by Hilary Majewski, the leading architect of Łódź at the time of the city’s most remarkable development. He designed, among others, the factory empire of Izrael Poznański, today’s Manufaktura, along with the grand palace (the first design of the building), but also the palace of Juliusz Heinzl at Piotrkowska 104, the House of the Credit Society at Pomorska 21, Piotrkowska 77, and many more. 

The tenement house at Włókiennicza Street was a residential and office building. In Majewski’s time, the street was called Kamienna (Stone Street). Laid out around 1880 and paved with fieldstones, it was a beautiful street back then, with lavishly decorated houses along its sides. Of course, the city’s greatest architect would not build his home in the middle of nowhere! That part of the city was also very Jewish, with as many as seven synagogues. The street was renamed to Włókiennicza (Textile Street) in 1957. Old, unrenovated houses lost most of their splendour and the whole area turned ugly, or even somewhat slum. However, in 2022, the street’s revitalisation project was completed. Make sure to check it out – each house is different, with its own character.