Curator: Przemek Dzienis
In my story, Eden really exists. It takes the form of a transit hotel where I stay on my way to an Italian island.
It is a place of transition between the journey and the destination.
I experience the full spectrum of emotions: pain, longing, and intimacy, among which love holds a special place.
Narcissus
Hic mortui vivos docent. Eye dissection.
Archival pigment print, 19.2 × 25.6 cm
The Anatomy Museum, Naples, Italy, 2025
The history of Ventotene is a history of exile and isolation. It dates back to ancient times, when the island served as a place of penal exile for women. In the 20th century, this function returned in a new form, when political opponents were sent here during the Fascist regime.
Ventotene remains a place marked by memories of separation, pain, anticipation, and longing, but also by attempts to build community despite the boundaries that divide people.
For me, the island becomes a temporary studio: a place for observing light, color, the horizon, and memory. From these experiences emerge spectral portraits of the people I have encountered, as well as traces of relationships and events.
The project stems from an exploration of the phenomenon of diffraction and the need to reflect on presence.
The starting point was conversations with people. A meeting with Mr. Michał Olbromski at the Warsaw Pracownia Wschodnia and a conversation about diffraction gratings led me to the Astronomical Observatory in Piwnice. There, I learned about the history of the women who worked as the “Harvard Computers.” Equally important to me were conversations with Iza Wilk about the numbers of life and with Laura Dębska about the colors of the rainbow. Wojciech Fangor’s works at Warsaw’s Śródmieście Station also became a significant source of inspiration. The combination of these experiences gave rise to panoramic photographs and spatial objects.
Eden emerges from the relationship between light, color, number, shape, and presence
Harvard Computers, 1918
Earliest source:
“Observatory staff posing as ‘paper dolls’ (standing in a line and holding hands), panoramic photograph, ca. 1918.”
Harvard University Archives / UAV 630.271 (391)
Harvard Libraries, olvwork432043
Facies Hippocratica
A medical term for a set of symptoms related to agony and imminent death.
Archival pigment print, 75 × 225 cm
Ventotene, Italy, 2025
Draper’s Astrograph
Built for the Harvard College Observatory in 1891.
Donated to the Nicolaus Copernicus University Astronomical Observatory in Piwnice in 1947.
Piwnice, 2024, personal archive
Wojciech Fangor’s Mosaics, Warsaw Śródmieście Station
These are among Wojciech Fangor’s earliest works exploring the relationship between color, light, and space.
The colorful mosaics, created between 1960 and 1962, are an integral part of the architecture of Warsaw Śródmieście Station. (FANGOR Foundation)
Warsaw, 2004–2025, personal archive
Spectre
A portrait of Marylka in colour.
Archival pigment print, 150 × 150 cm
Ventotene, Italy, 2025
Vector
Mother and daughter born on the same day, 5 December. Hanoi–Rome.
Ventotene, Italy, 2025
Spectre
A portrait of Marylka in colour.
Archival pigment print, 150 × 150 cm
Ventotene, Italy, 2025
Portrait of Time’s Beginning
Sunrise over Kiribati.
C-print, darkroom print, 30 × 40 cm
Ventotene, Italy, 2025
All in Love
A wave of falling in love.
Archival pigment print, 80 × 200 cm each
Ventotene, Italy, 2025
Jelly Fears
Fears discovered while diving in the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Projections of 3D scans
Ventotene, Italy, 2025
An important element of my work is reflecting on friendship, striving to be there for others, and remaining true to myself.
During my birthday, I visit a solar power plant in Morocco, searching for the energy that I find in friendship and relationships. At the same time, I turn my attention to loved ones living in bombed-out Kyiv, where power outages alternate with air raid sirens and the desire to experience youth as normal.
It is precisely between the experience of light and its absence, closeness and distance, that a story of presence unfolds.
Spine
A staircase scanned during a blackout in a raid on Kyiv
3D print, height 120 cm, in cooperation with Andrzej Szwabe
Kyiv, Ukraine, 2024
Grave Rave
Air-raid sirens during raves.
Video recording, loop
Kyiv, Ukraine, 2024
Tiger Trigger
A trace of proximity transgressions.
Archival pigment print, 40 × 100 cm each
Ventotene, Italy, 2025
Acid
Stars above the Atlas Mountains.
Tufting, 190 × 190 cm, in cooperation with Aga Janukanis
31.46253° N, 6.23492° W, Morocco, 2025
Balance
Archival pigment print, 80 × 200 cm each
Ventotene, Italy, 2025
Noor III
The tower at the Solar Power Plant receiving light from a thousand mirrors.
Archival pigment print, 100 × 85 cm
Ouarzazate, Morocco, 2025
Transit
A friend called Marylka died on 21 December 2024,
during the longest night of the year.
Lightbox, Fuji RVP 100 slide, 6 × 17 cm
Ventotene, Italy, 2025
Hundreds of species of birds migrating between continents remind me of life’s journey. Ventotene becomes their home only for a moment – a place of rest and passage.
As I watch their journeys, I think about relationships, encounters, and partings. About how briefly we appear in each other’s lives, leaving behind traces that last longer than our presence itself.
Colourful Bird
Calls of birds migrating via Ventotene. Interpreted by Bartosz Bielenia.
Audio recording, Warsaw, 2026
Grzegorz Wełnicki
Kurator / Curator
Przemek Dzienis
Gościnny udział w wystawie / Guest appearance at the exhibition
Bartosz Bielenia
Identyfikacja wizualna / Visual identity
Zuzanna Małaszuk
Koordynacja / Coordination
Patrycja Wójcik
Produkcja wystawy / Production
Wojciech Ruminski
Oświetlenie / Lights
Mikołaj Makiłła
Dział realizacji wystaw / Art handling
Łukasz Abramowicz
Jacek Paszotta
Julia Pluta
Kseniia Ponomarenko
Realizacja obiektów i materiałów / Artwork production
„Kwas” (tufting) / „Acid” (tufting) – Aga Janukanis
„Spine” (druk 3D / 3D print) – Andrzej Szwabe
„Grave rave” (montaż wideo / video editing) – Filip Skrońc
„Kolorowy ptak” (realizacja dźwięku) / “Colourful Bird” (sound engineering) – Filip Skrońc, Karolina Sokołowska /
Dom Kultury Śródmieście – Dom w Alejach
„Kolorowy ptak” (postprodukcja dźwięku) / “Colourful Bird” (sound post production): Błażej Kanclerz
Wsparcie techniczne / Technical support
6×7 Fotografia Profesjonalna
A10 Darkroom
Banda Print Shop
Brooklyn Darkroom
Federico Caponi / Pracownia Wschodnia
Plamka Retouch
Skanery Niewiarygodne/Wojciech Dąbrowski
Studio Zachód