In 1996, “Foto-Medium-Art” Galery lost its permanent location. The time of emigration, of “nomadic gallery” arrived. The original program, however, was continued in many friendly places. Whether in the „Castle on Water” in Wojnowice or in Art Gallery (at present, pARTer) in Kłodzko. The logo of “F-M-A” showed up also on the occasion of exhibitions where I acted as a curator, also in other countries – Czech Republic, Germany, France. One of them was “Q-bis-m”, presented at the festival in Nantes in 2004. Also the Festivals of Young Art “AbiRynT” in Kłodzko (eight so far) are held under this logo. It is worth mentioning that “Foto-Medium-Art” was a logo that accompanied a series of critical texts and essays published in the “Odra” magazine in 1977.
Since 2007, “Foto-Medium-Art” Gallery has had a new location in Kraków. Commencing regular continuation of the activity prompts questions, for example: how the program established throughout the years is to find itself in the changed cultural environment, in times when the set of most commonly used media has been replaced to a large extent (digital in place of analog); when the former saving of media has been replaced with extensive picture structures (multimedia and multi-trend in nature)? After the medial and elementary period, in the era that is only in the process of making, in the era that follows the subsequent “neo-” and “post-”, in the era where linear narratives give way to mosaic structures of databases, structures composed of elements that are independent one from another, it is necessary to revise the program. In what direction? – the upcoming artistic practice will show. Still, it can already be said that this will be complex photography involved in art, photography that opens up to other domains continuously expanding the scope of its exploratory and expressive potential.
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The passed period of medial and elementary photography matched well the media world with an analytic and nostalgic approach to the applied language, preferred by the artists. However, in recent decades the scope of problems and means has changed so dramatically and has expanded so much that perhaps we should talk about the re-medial galaxy. From the analog realism we entered the arbitrary digital hyperrealism. Older media have not ceased to exist – the are continuously upgraded being subject to incessant re-mediation process, i.e. processing and re-modelling which is to harmonize with creation from scratch of other media, mostly computer ones, at the level of form and content.
Jerzy Olek
Artykuł zrealizowany w ramach Programu Operacyjnego Promocja Czytelnictwa ogłoszonego przez Ministra Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego
