Małgorzata Potocka. We Don’t Need Other Words When We Have Mirrors

The exhibtion of Małgorzata Potocka

Curator: Marika Kuźmicz

23.09-2.10.2022

The exhibition is held as part of the Vintage Photo Festival 8th - International Festival of Analog Photography Lovers in Bydgoszcz, Poland.

Address: Bydgoszcz, Mennica 10 St., Rother’s Mills

For more info please check: www.vintagephotofestival.com

As an actress, Małgorzata Potocka has been associated with the film almost all her life - she played her first film role at early age. However, apart from these activities, carried out as part of commercial cinematography, Potocka is also a visual artist. At the end of the 1970s, together with her husband, Józef Robakowski, she ran an independent art place, the legendary Exchange Gallery in Łódź, at the same time co-creating the environment of the then Polish avant-garde. Potocka used various media: film (her works were made on 16 mm film), she also worked with video - as one of the first artists in Poland. Photography occupied a special place in her work. She created photographic series of self-portraits and photos documenting the world around her. She chose from the reality of the Polish Peoples Republic what seemed to her the most paradoxical, absurd and unique, and built from reporters shots ambiguous compositions, arrangements and narratives. The exhibition We dont need other worlds when we have mirrors is the first presentation of her works since 1988. Potocka debuted as a visual artist in 1976 as part of the collective exhibition "Offer" in Lublin. In the following years, her works were shown at exhibitions, incl. in Łódź, Warsaw, Wrocław, Zagreb, Paris, Kassel, Hamburg, Brussels and New York. Małgorzata Potockas exhibition as part of the Vintage Photo Festival was built on the basis of the artists photographic self-portraits. The subsequent auto-shots of her face are a special attempt to deal with this subject, as old as the photography itself. It is a special attempt, because it is made by a known and recognized person, who at the same time remains invariably alone with her fears but also observations. Potocka looks at herself carefully and consciously, playing a game with her own image - both public and private. As Jerzy Busza aptly wrote about Potocka, "The only point of reference for any actions of Małgorzata Potocka is herself"

MAŁGORZATA POTOCKA - actress, director, film producer, visual artist. The author of films, photographs and video works. She grew up in a family closely related to the film, she made her debut in front of the camera as a little girl, but her actual cinematic debut was Andrzej Wajdas film "Everything for Sale", which brought Pootckamore roles in Poland and abroad. In 1978, she graduated from the Acting Department, and in 1981 from the Directing Department at the Polish National Film, Television and Theater School in Łódź. In1985, she received a scholarship from Film Workshop Millenium in NewYork and lectured at several universities in the USA. She belongs to the Polish Filmmakers Association and the Creators of Culture Association. She is the author of photography, experimental films,music videos and TV programs. She exhibited her works, among othersin Warsaw, Krakow, Paris, Budapest and New York. Together with Józef Robakowski, she co-founded the legendary Exchange Gallery in Łódź. Currently, she is the general and artistic director of the Powszechny Theater. Jan Kochanowski in Radom.