The exhibition is a collection of intriguing nocturnal photography and a story of crossing boundaries, of the senses, and the world of animals (and people). Can the night-time encounter between humans and animals lead to a symbiotic understanding? How to reflect on wild nature in a posthumanist world?

At the exhibition, Michał Korta will show “The Shadow Line” project (2012–2024), where he explores the animal world, photographing animals after dark in their natural environment. These are portraits of night hunters traversing forests, fields, and villages in search of food or shelter, and of wild creatures that had to adapt to living in an environment dominated by people.

The project is rooted in posthumanist thought, in which humans are no longer regarded as the central agents within the natural world. Formally, I sought to develop my own visual language that might echo the language of animals. I was searching for a language we cannot understand, because we will never be able to communicate with animals on the same level as we communicate with other people. I wanted to evoke this unknown through chance and other techniques specific to photography.

– says Michał Korta.

On show at the ICC medieval cellars, Korta’s series of photographs will offer a record of experience skilfully translated by the artist into a visual language. The exhibition will consist of several elements: granular, “moved” shots of animals and fragments of nature, as well as situational freeze-frames made during night wandering will be intertwined with precise studio photos of animal skulls. Photographed on an ultra-black background, they change into almost sculptural forms and at the same time provoke reflection on transience. In the face of our finiteness, we are all animals.

In his work, Korta uses both analogue and digital equipment and even a mobile phone. His photographs taken at night or in very dark conditions are characterised by a specific, disturbing mood. They required precision in the camera settings and creativity in the use of limited lighting, which makes them a fascinating field for exploration. These are photos filled with emotions – peace and violence, things that sting and move. Blurred, “spectral”, some almost abstract, the outlines demand from us to focus and “listen closely” to black and white images.

From the left: Łukasz Galusek, Michał Korta, Agata Wąsowska-Pawlik, Natalia Żak; fot. Paweł Mazur

Curator

Natalia Żak

Curator at the ICC

Curator

Natalia Żak

Curator at the ICC

Art historian and curator. She has collaborated with art galleries in Poland and abroad. At the International Cultural Centre in Kraków, she has co-curated exhibitions including Wandering Images: Małgorzata Mirga-Tas (2022), Not Only Bauhaus: Interwar German Photography and Polish Connections (2021), and Photobloc: Central Europe in Photobooks (Kraków, 2019/2020; Olomouc, 2020; Vilnius, 2021).

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