Because the problem is that reality turns out to be so crazy that no human language can express it sensibly. Simply speaking, words get trapped in the throat and common sense goes on strike. […] And here, surprisingly, comes the moment when art can offer something. For although it will not help us understand anything better (that is not its task), it has the potential to suggest ways of expressing this strangeness of quantum light. […] Art can help us express our correct intuition that we know next to nothing.*

The starting point and source of inspiration is the oeuvre of Jan Chwałczyk – a visual artist, art theorist and important personality on the Wrocław art scene, who situated the eponymous light and shadow at the centre of his interests. He spent years studying physical phenomena connected with light, such as the absorption and emission of photons or the formation of colours or shadow. He presented his observations and conclusions as artistic objects and in numerous theoretical texts.

Jan Chwałczyk’s work was based primarily on scientific knowledge. The presentation at Krupa Art Foundation, however, takes a different perspective: it shows artistic works that consider what lies at the edge of human cognition.

The featured contemporary artists examine the subject of light and shadow on many different levels, exploring it in fields such as spirituality, philosophy, psychology, ecology or mythology. Using a variety of media, they focus not only on a scientific approach, but primarily on sensation, emotion and feeling; they often delve into worlds close to intuition, sensuality, the subconscious and even metaphysics.

On the Limits… is therefore not only an overview of artistic phenomena that can arise from the observation of the movement of photons. It is also a story about the beautiful madness of the marriage of art and science, as well as about the attempt to grasp the surrounding reality with reason, which is doomed to failure from the onset; about the great unknowns, unpredictability and desire to create a universal language, which (whether by means of physical equations or colour and form) can help to express admiration for the world and describe its mysteries.

***

The exhibition is accompanied by a programme of events: performances, meetings and workshops for children, carried out in the gallery space and in the KAF Digital Immersion Room.
Details coming soon.

*A. Dragan, in: Jan Chwałczyk. Light. Shadow. Information, ed. Jolanta Studzińska, Sylwia Świsłocka-Karwot, Wrocław Contemporary Museum, Wrocław, 2023

curators: Anna Stec, Natalia Barczyńska

artists: Justyna Baśnik, Piotr Bosacki, Paweł Bownik, Radek Brousil, Jan Chwałczyk, Tomasz Dobiszewski, Magda Franczak, Michał Frydrych, Krzysztof Gil, Jonathan Gillie, Karolina Hałatek, Klaudia Kasperska, KinoManual (Maciej Bączyk, Aga Jarząb), Monika Konieczna, Mateusz Majchrzak, Weronika Anna Marianna, Daniel O’Toole, Patrycja Piętka, Władysław Strzemiński, Ira Svobodová, Pedro Torres, Wiktoria

key visual: Magdalena Jaskułowska

lighting design: Klaudia Kasperska

expert consultation on Jan Chwałczyk’s work: Jolanta Studzińska

translations: Karol Waniek

proofreadiing: Aleksandra Helle

production: Natalia Barczyńska, Michał Micach, Michał Michalczak

promotion: Kajetan Buturlak

media patrons: Magazyn Szum, Notes na 6 Tygodni

technical support: Teatr Układ Formalny, Lumina Park

opening: 22 March 2024, 7 p.m. | opening performance: About the Eye That Saw, Monika Konieczna: 22 March 2024, 7.45 p.m. Admission free.

The exhibition will be showing until 9 June. Tickets (PLN 12/20) can be purchased online and in the gallery

Media patrons: Magazyn Szum, Notes na 6 Tygodni