Exhibition Laboratory of Presentation Techniques

Curators: Marika Kuźmicz, Łukasz Mojsak

The exhibition is available on-line: https://vimeo.com/494055034

The first exhibition in four decades showcasing the work of the Laboratory of Presentation Techniques (LTP) collective, established in the second half of the 1970s in Katowice. During the few years of the group’s activity its members followed an original artistic trajectory, leading from printmaking, which they studied at the faculty of graphic art in Katowice (part of the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow), towards experiments with film and video. They adopted a unique position at the intersection of a number of artistic disciplines and milieus. In contact with the neo-avantgarde circle of artists conducting analytical experiments with photography, film and video, they also showed their work at exhibitions representing the graphic art milieu, and participated in the I AM festival, a seminal event for Polish performance art, in 1978. What’s more, one of the LTP members, Grzegorz G. Zgraja, appeared at music events, such as the Warsaw Autumn festival in 1979.

The exhibition features early graphic prints by the LTP members, which manifest their search for new definitions of graphic art and consistent pursuit of expanding its borders. These are works created with “natural matrices” – objects and phenomena treated as “carriers of the idea of graphic art”. We also present a range of visually attractive serigraphs by Jadwiga and Jacek Singer, marked by their interest in the visual sphere of advertising and consumer culture.

Considerable attention is given to films and works based on video transmission and record. These are presented in the form of panels that present artists’ concepts as well as existing pieces, such as a broad selection of videos by Grzegorz G. Zgraja at the intersection of sound and vision. They manifest an analytical and critical character, serving to explore the potential of manipulation and illusion resulting from the ever more powerful impact of new media on the perception of the world.

Amongst the four group members: Marek Kołaczkowski (b. 1952), Jacek Singer (1950–2020), Jadwiga Singer, née Włodarczyk (1952–2008), and Grzegorz G. Zgraja (b. 1952), only the latter continued his activity in visual arts in the later years, gaining renown as an artist and teacher. The exhibition offers an opportunity to explore the output of the whole collective, which has been largely forgotten and is only now being re-introduced into circulation with the efforts of the Arton Foundation. Its noteworthy element is a series of unknown films by Jadwiga and Jacek Singer. Their work with the structure of the film image emanates an uncanny and disturbing aura that shifts it beyond the frames of purely analytical experimentation.



The exhibition situates LTP’s film and video work in a broader context of presented pieces by international artists, such as Lynda Benglis, Joan Jonas, and Peter Campus.

Organised with additional funding from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund. In partnership with Video Data Bank.