Kacper Kowalski is coming to Amsterdam especially for an artist talk on February 4th at Bildhalle to guide through his current exhibition Event Horizon.
“Whether it was fog or snow, frost or thaw, I took to the sky by my motorized paraglider to see if it was possible to fly. If possible, I flew over frozen bodies of water to orbit the shimmering structure of the ice, fascinated by its forms, experiencing the feeling of overview and taking pictures.”- Kacper Kowalski
With photographs of iced landscapes, Kacper Kowalski takes us on his adventurous flights. Event Horizon is a contin- uation of his Arché series, but for his latest work, Kowalski pushes the boundaries even further. Driven by his instinct to create bold and spectacular images of winter landscapes, he shows his homeland of Poland from a perspective hidden from most people. Extreme weather conditions could not stop the photographer. Kowalski’s photographs, shot from 150 m above the frozen water, are particularly impressive, showing a natural scene that looks like abstract paintings created by nature.
Kacper Kowalski (b. 1977, Poland) has been observing and photographing landscapes from aerial perspective for over 25 years. After becoming an architect and having worked in the profession for four years, he eventually decided to commit to flying and photography – his true passions. As a paraglider, a pilot of small aircrafts and a gyrocopter, Kacper would fly into the air with an engine strapped to his back to discover the world of forms, shapes, and patterns during lonely flights. Altogether he spent over 5000 hours in the air. Constantly fighting with the natural forces: wind and air currents, when he photographs from 150 m above the ground level, he finds himself in an almost meditative state, when the nature and surroundings reveal not only abstract forms to him, but also seem to communicate with him with the language of symbols that appear on his photographs. The flight is for Kowalski not only a way to capture the world beneath but becomes a spiritual journey that reveals universal truths about the relationship between man and nature, about the past and the present, and about one’s personal truth and the way to get there.
Kowalski has received numerous awards, including the World Press Photo prize three times, the Picture of the Year International POYi prize six times and dozens of other honours. His first book, Side Effects, was published in 2014, OVER was self-published in 2017, followed by Arché in 2021. His works have been exhibited hundreds of times in group and solo exhibitions around the world, and his books have received prestigious wins or nominations, including Les Prix du Livre at Rencontres d’Arles.
Some of his works from Event Horizon are also currently on display at the SFO Museum in San Francisco.
Artist talk:
Saturday, 4 February 2023, 16:00 h
Bildhalle Amsterdam
Willemsparkweg 134
NL – 1071 HR Amsterdam
www.bildhalle.nl
The exhibition lasts until 11 march 2023
