Distant Place

Five Photographic Stories about the Vistula River in Warsaw

Exhibition
Photographs by Jan Brykczyński, Michał Łuczak, Rafał Milach,
Adam Pańczuk and Agnieszka Rayss of the Sputnik Photos collective
Produced by Copernicus Science Centre, Warsaw, 2012

Role:
Curator of the Exhibition
Create the concept of the photographic exhibition in cooperation with the 5 photographers
Work on the development of the photographic essay with each photographer individually
Select the essential images in cooperation with the Sputnik Team

Copernicus Science Center opened Pavilion 512 down at the Riverbank for its first exhibition “Distant Place”

The pavillion offers one long concrete wall running parallel to the Vistula River. The photography is printed on billboard paper, glued right on the wall and layed out in an ongoing flow. Visitors can walk along the images similar to taking a walk along the river.

Photography by Michał Łuczak | Images displayed in the room at 3 meter height

The 83 meter long room with a stripe of daylight from top

Photography by Agnieszka Rayss and Adam Pańczuk | Animation of exhibition in PhotoShop

Photography by Jan Brykczyński, Rafal Milach | The installation in Reality

At the opening...

Book signing with the artists and opening

Distant Place is a project by Sputnik Photos about the Vistula river in Warsaw. The Vistula in Warsaw is more strange than beautiful. A forest grows along its banks, in the center of the city, which is separated from the river by a highway. River traffic has been extinct for over twenty years. Next to the city, the Vistula is something of a reserve, an unpenetrated enclave. It is incredible how distant a place it is, even though it is in the center of the city. A magical place and asylum for some, to others it is a gutter, a dump, a realm of rejected people and discarded objects.
In July 2012 Kopernikus Science Center in Warsaw (Poland) opened its Pavilion 512 down at the Riverbank for its first exhibition. The Sputnik Photos collective asked Barbara Stauss to curate a photographic exhibition. Together with the photographers she worked on the concept for the exhibition space, and with each photographer individually on developing his/ her photographic essay. Together we select the essential images most suitable for the exhibition space and worked with the designer on the edit of the catalogue.