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Life Goes on

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/Agata Awruk
exhibition opening: March 2nd, 2018, 6 PM – 8 PM
curator: Sergey Shabohin

exhibition open until May 19th, 2018

The photographs that are presented on the exhibition, were took in Białystok in the last two years, but this indication of a specific time and place is unnecessary, as it is hardly referenced in the exposition. Timelessness and placelessness show us the quality of these photographs. We can see the abstract nature of even quite specific images. Famous Heraclitus’ aphorism “Everything flows, everything changes” most accurately represents the essence of the reality shown at the exhibition. The relentless flow of life was stopped and fixed with the help of the photographic process. It can be said, that the photographs included in the exhibition are self-reflective. They show us that process of fixing the fragments of real world in photographic images, where the flow of vital juices congeals on glass and skin, in hair and grass, inside veins and medical tubes. That process of freezing the reality with the help of photography is depicted here with the image of a thin layer of ice framed by the walls of an empty pool.

Life goes on. The sensation of life in images on the one hand is existentially unbearable with the realization of one's own scarred physiology, mouldy life and irritating flies. On the other hand, it is filled with lyrical hope and ecstasy from contemplating elusive moments.

Agata Awruk’s photography refers us to the trend of snapshot aesthetic, which mimics the manner of taking random, banal photographs in a hurry. Such aesthetic arose against the fatigue from staged and overdone photos with thoughtful composition. They most subtly reflect the surface of the fabric of the reality, in its everyday life and hidden timeless truths. And today the snapshot aesthetics received a powerful impetus for development in connection with the emergence of social networks. Agata Awruk herself sneers at the fact that she became engaged in photography having signed up on Instagram, an Internet service that greatly influenced the development of photography and its perception in the world. Social networks and new technologies on the one hand led to a rapid growth in the quality of technical and aesthetic methods of taking photographs, and on the other, greatly changed our attitude to photography. We began to appreciate random images, to doubt the need for excessive quality, perceive the printed pictures and the stories built on them differently. These transformations are reflected in Agata Awruk’s work.
Sergey Shabohin

Agata Awruk
Born in 1983 in Białystok. A graduate of the Institute of Polish Culture at the University of Warsaw and the Sputnik photo program. A winner of many photo competitions, including TIFF Festival and National Geographic among others. She exhibited her works in Białystok, Warsaw and Milan. She has a photographic book “Rest under my glory” published by Brutofanzin (Milan, Italy). Her works were published in Polish and foreign magazines, including "Wysokie Obcasy", "i-D Italy", and "The Calvert Journal". Agata Awruk lives and works in Białystok.

Sergey Shabohin
Born in 1984 in Novopolotsk, Belarus. Painter, curator, critic, founder and editor-in-chief of the portal about contemporary Belarusian art ArtAktivist.org, co-founder and editor-in-chief of the research platform on contemporary Belarusian art Kalektar.org. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Minsk. He is counted among the leading figures of Belarusian contemporary art. Sergey Shabohin lives and works in Białystok.

Gallery

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    "Life Goes on" exhibition opening

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    "Life Goes on" exhibition opening

  • Enlarge image

    "Life Goes on" exhibition opening

  • Enlarge image

    "Life Goes on" exhibition opening

  • Enlarge image

    "Life Goes on" exhibition opening

  • Enlarge image

    "Life Goes on" exhibition opening

  • Enlarge image

    "Life Goes on" exhibition opening

  • Enlarge image

    "Life Goes on" exhibition opening