Here we are stranded
Somehow it seems the same
Beware, here comes the quiet life again

(Japan, “Quiet life”, 1979)

Wojciech Bąkowski’s seventh solo exhibition at the Stereo features a selection of the artist’s most recent works, expanded by a video from 2011.

For the past several years, Bąkowski has been developing his own technique of drawing with charcoal on sanded cardboard. The resulting grainy depictions evoke underexposed views of cityscapes and household appliances in semi-darkness, as well as low-resolution video recordings. The artist himself traces the origins of his own aesthetic to the 1980s, particularly to the quality of VHS recordings from that period. Bąkowski’s work is almost entirely retrospective: he is interested in memory and perception, and is fascinated by the provisional and accidental nature of their construction. Hence the simple means, basic materials and home-made quality.

Despite their idiosyncratic foundations, Bąkowski’s works are communicative and open – the artist leads us through the corridors and rooms of his own inner life, searching for similarities and understanding. It is a friendly encounter. Intriguing in this context is the video work Exercises for true friends (2011), constructed from stop-motion and digitally animated elements along with an experimental soundtrack, consisting of a sequence of scenes – tests of attention and patience and, ultimately, a sense of humour. Bąkowski dedicates his work to the audience (the key preposition ‘for’), but its title is formulated as if the final results of the ‘exercises’ were also to provide him with information.