Discomfort
This year’s motto links the projects of the principal part of our exhibitions held during the 7th edition of the festival.
The subject was inspired by a recent project of photographer Sebastian Rogowski under this very title; we have the honour to show it for the first time in exhibition format. A program of artistic residencies is a characteristic element of the Festival of Photography “W ramach Sopotu”. This year we have offered residencies to three artists employing the medium of photography: Filip Ćwik, Weronika Gęsicka and Elis Hoffman. Without any predetermined topic and independently of one another, in their works they addressed the subject of contemporary concerns, which have become a fundamental element of our everyday life in social, cultural and personal terms.
Observation and reflection on last year’s events have inspired many of us to re-evaluate our approach to reality, to change our standpoint and often our outlook on the world. This provided an impetus and starting point for the three photographers’ reflections we have integrated under one telling banner. Discomfort. Residents’ Exhibition, similarly to the aforementioned solo exhibition of Sebastian Rogowski, as well as the presentation of projects by Martina Hoogland Ivanow, provides a commentary on the extremely vulnerable and volatile interpersonal relations of today, difficulties in forming a unified and stable concept of oneself and view on reality, as well as an overwhelming sense of fear and doubt concerning the essence of one’s personal operation in the world and the problem of autonomy. Paradoxically, despite our instinctive attempts to avoid it, the sensation of increasingly intense discomfort may be the only catalyst and impetus for change, for an evolution of thinking about reality, for unlocking the need to think creatively about the future.
This year’s festival will feature other interesting exhibitions, including a group exhibition of international artists, Violeta Bubelyte, Błażej Pindor, Diana Tamane, and Artur Żmijewski. Titled Flower Smugglers, it is curated by Adam Mazur. Another one will be an exhibition following-up on a workshop for students of the Film School in Łódź / PWSFTviT led by Prof. Janusz Tylman and Hubert Humka as well as a collective show of the most interesting photography projects of students of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk.