Wir überwinden Grenzen

Polish artist Piotr Iwicki surprises at first glance with motifs that seem strange. He calls his series Lost Spaces, which was created between 2008 and 2011. He gives the technique the enigmatic name Diasec. All the pictures have the same format: 70 x 140 cm, and the disconcerting effect at first glance could be the artist's intention. The presentation of the foreign evokes curiosity or spontaneous rejection. The artistry of the work opens up in this field of tension. And if you ask more precisely about the Diasec technique, you will get the answer that these pictures are neither painted, drawn nor printed, but technically generated. A digital camera supplies the image material, which is processed with the help of computer programs. Several processes are necessary for the design, in which drawing or layout programs are also used.

Pictorial spaces with sometimes spooky motifs are fitted into the wide-screen formats, exerting a strange, perhaps even uncanny pull: standing in front of the picture, I find myself in the room and am exposed to the scenario. Eerie? Why actually? Aren't these the daily reality messages that I see online and indifferently ignore in order to click forward to the next picture or video?

Here I am not actually standing in the picture, but in reality. A magical evening atmosphere could envelop me in this picture, but the crescent moon is framed by - well, what of? Are they rotten ruins with branched steel pipes, or abysmal fractured edges of rock faces? If I take a closer look at the picture, I can choose where I am. In any case, it is not a pleasant place, and I am glad that I am standing in front of the picture and not an inhabitant of the scenario.

The entanglement of the spaces - meaning pictorial and real space - intensifies the illusion of being in the picture and enhances the aesthetic effect. The confrontation with the image, which does not represent reality, obviously triggers stronger emotions than current reality images of world events. We should use this state of mind, once it has set in, to take a closer and more open look at the world we live in.

• The artist, born in Gdynia/Poland, won the 12th International Salon for Art Photography / Kraków in 1981.
• In 1993 he was awarded the La Fondation des Prix Européen / Freiburg.
• Since 1987, many solo exhibitions in galleries in south-western Germany and in Basel have made Piotr Iwicki well known.