The exhibition “The School of Looking – The City” encourages walking, observation, and treating urban squares, streets, and courtyards as if they were a piece of literature. Through a dialogue between photography and the written word—spanning from the second half of the 19th century to the present day—a space is created to reflect upon the urban landscape. The starting point is the work of Antoni Mikołajczyk. The artist moved with a camera set to a long exposure time, recording the traces of glowing streetlamps and car headlights. The photograph does not depict the night street or the light sources in a realistic manner; rather, it is a record of the relationship between space, time, and the human being. The exhibition focuses on these very aspects—the methods of recording, experiencing, and perceiving.

The exhibition presents works by artists such as: Karol Beyer, Janusz Maria Brzeski, Leopold Buczkowski, Jan Bułhak, Zofia Chomętowska, Władysław Grabowski, Stefan Kiełsznia, Roman Opałka, Włodzimierz Pfeiffer, Bruno Schulz, Piotr Tomczyk, and Aleksander Zakrzewski.

Bruno Schulz, Revolution in the city, 1922.

The photographs are sourced from the collection of the Museum of Art in Łódź (Muzeum Sztuki w Łodzi) as well as the holdings of the State Archive in Łódź, the Museum of Warsaw, the Archaeology of Photography Foundation, the University of Łódź Library, the National Library, and the Marshal Józef Piłsudski Voivodeship Public Library in Łódź.

More information about the exhibition: HERE