The Taglialatella Gallery presents Papier, an exhibition by the artist Kasia Wandycz. It echoes the publication of the eponymous book by Hemeria in January 2023.
From the dawn of printing to the 21st century, the printed word – whether in the form of books, posters, lithographs, flyers, etc. – has always left its mark. – has never ceased to leave its mark on the way we think about the world, the way we describe it. Vehicle of our knowledge, object of transmission, the printed matter marks since its creation our individual and collective memory, and our imaginations. In the public space, posters made of paper are printed materials that hold a central place. Tools of publicity, propaganda, communication, information, they tend today to disappear.
With the supremacy of digital technology in our society, and its support, the screen, posters are increasingly replaced by moving images, without materiality. They are thus gradually leaving the physical world to enter the world of calculation: the nature of the poster is evolving, it is no longer just an ultimate tool for controlling the number of passers-by, their attitude, the number of times they will look – or not – at the moving image.
In order to pay homage to this vanishing world of print, Kasia Wandycz wanted to keep the last traces of it. For several years now, she has been collecting fragments of posters that have been torn or mishandled by the wind, rain or human intervention. During her peregrinations in the different cities she surveys, Paris, New York and Warsaw, she lingers on a chromatic detail, on a shape, on a composition which attract her eye. Without appropriating the poster in its entirety, as Jacques Villeglé did, she retains only a fragment of it in the photographic image. This in turn becomes a work of art in its own right through a framing chosen and assumed by the photographer.
Trace of reality, the image produced, if it remains an appropriation, is inscribed by this step in the field of the imaginary. Without retouching, without recomposition, the poster or rather the superimposed and damaged posters are transformed, by the grace of a new frame in their material, into a new work, abstract, poetic, political, with either pastel or bright colors.
Pop art, urban art, pictorial art?
Kasia Wandycz’s work is at the border of all these arts. If the final image is a photograph, the artist plays with the codes to better leave us free to our interpretation. By restoring a part of the collective memory that is written in the urban space, she allows us to reenchant a whole world in the grip of oblivion or destruction. Each work tells a new story, that everyone can write.
Creative gesture through a look, it is available for a new appropriation by the one who looks at it, inspired by the game of tracks it has created: which posters are they, what do we see, who does it remind us of? We thus rediscover the pleasure of looking, of questioning ourselves, of searching. While we are confronted with the profusion of images, this time to stop is a precious gift that is offered to us.
The objective of Kasia Wandycz remains especially to make us perceive the beauty of a form, a color, a thickness of tears. To apprehend the beauty of these papers badly handled but alive, to feel their volume, their relief. Distortions of reality, poetic works, these photographs compose a visual and graphic universe that gives rise to emotion, joy and nostalgia.
Kasia Wandycz
Born in the United States, of Polish origin, Kasia Wandycz (1965) obtained a master’s degree in graphic arts at Connecticut College. She also studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, Poland. She lives and works in Paris and has been a photographer for over 25 years for the weekly magazine Paris Match. In her artistic practice, she focuses on paper, both as the substance of her work and as a subject in its own right. In these bits of used and torn posters, she finds poetry, and through photography, these fragments acquire a new existence and meaning. Wandering through the streets of contemporary metropolises, she draws her own cartography, as a true “flâneuse”, transforming the printed material into both a document and a symbol of the passing of time.
Thus, Kasia Wandycz takes pleasure in observing the paper, in questioning its future and its perspectives. Her work is a reflection on the significance of the role of paper in our societies, and, indirectly, on the impact of electronic devices. What are the profound effects of the progressive disappearance of printed paper in favor of screens? His PAPER series began in 2015 and continues to this day.
Hemeria – The publishing house
HEMERIA is a French publishing house launched in 2018 on the occasion of Paris Photo. It has developed a unique and tailor-made approach to serving photographers. With its expertise in image processing and printing techniques, this singular publishing house masters the entire creative process and works alongside artists in a spirit of co-construction. Designed for all photographers and artists who wish to publish their work by combining art and craft, freedom of action and a spirit of partnership. Hemeria is for artists and photographers who do not want to compromise on the quality of reproduction of their work, whether it be books or fine art prints. Its ambition is to create beauty, because only beauty lasts over time.
The PAPER book gathers 36 photographs in a book conceived as a case.
ISBN 978-2-490952-35-9
17 x 27 cm, French format
84 pages, hardback binding, round back, price : 55€ TTC
Publication in January 2023 – Already available on:
http://www.hemeria.com
Kasia Wandycz – Paper
Taglialatella Gallery
From September 1 to 23, 2022
4 Rue de Jarente, 75004 Paris
Information
Galerie Taglialatella
4 Rue de Jarente, 75004 Paris
September 01, 2022 to September 23, 2022
