Ars Cameralis Silesiae Superioris

„We are growing on objects which, with the passing of time start to pile up on attics, in wardrobes and lofts becoming tangible evidence of a certain end, decay, they are witnesses to the loss of supervision over time, our daily disasters, tripping over the Impossible. Those objects, absurd evidence of the existence of yesterday, they are real but their essence and vitality slip through our fingers. Loss is inscribed in them as they are collections belonging to the world which does not exist any longer.  Objects which Urbanowicz gathered in black boxes, or following the museum track, in drawers, they were put to death, pinned glass-cases similarly to some monstros, prehistoric onsects. From this moment they can only pile, get covered with dust and web, not meaning so much. These are materialised remains of time, bits stuck in throat and evoking sentimental emotion. Their commonness is painful as they were deprived of aura, even not museum-like but ordinarily stored. In Andrzej Urbanowicz’s museum lights are switched off, thing are deprived of their alleged splendour from the past.”

/ Sebastian Cichocki

About the artist:

Andrzej Urbanowicz — born in Vilnius in 1938. A graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków ( Graphic Design Faculty), author of many pictorial works, graphics and also spatial arrangements. He organised happenings and paratheatrical activities. An essayist, art critic, organizer of exhibitions and symposiums devoted to the output of Hans Bellmer. He was exhibited and awarded in many prestigious competitions in Dortmund, Ostrava, New York, Monte Carlo, among others. In 1963, his debut individual exhibition was held in „Krzywe Koło” Gallery in Warsaw. 

The most crucial part of Urbanowicz’s output is connected with activities of group „Oneiron” (1967—1978) from Katowice, which included Urszula Broll, Zygmunt Stuchlik, Antoni Halar and Henryk Waniek, among others. Artists of this group creatively penetrated Carl Gustav Jung’s theory and iconography of the Far East Art. Interdisciplinary achievements of the artists were very important. The group discovered many artistic worlds, including the Czech Prague myth as well as alchemy and secret knowledge, which can be artistically rationalized.

The artist died in 2011 in Szklarska Poreba.

Details of the publication:

Translation: Paweł Wuttke

Photographs: Józef Wróbel

Layout: Katarzyna Bochenek

Publisher: Cultural Institution Ars Cameralis Silesiae Superioris

Bilingual edition: Polish and English

Book — paperback; box — hardcover

The publication was a catalogue to an exhibition during ⅩⅤ Ars Cameralis Festival. The exhibition took place in Sector 1 Gallery in Upper Silesian Cultural Centre in Katowice (November 23 — December 20, 2006).