Muzeum Sztuki i Techniki Japońskiej Manggha

While photographing Japanese society of the 21st century, I attempted to capture a particularly distinct dichotomy between an individual and the mass, a fusion of ancient rituals and modern norms. They appear to me as an armour worn voluntairly by the modern Japanese. Its form, protects human life from disorder.

Wojtek Wieteska on his project

In PARADISE 101 Wojtek Wieteska summarizes a series of photographs and moving images inspired by the Japanese reality of the XXth and XXIst century, the elements of zen culture and the Far-East culture of visual narratives described by Roland Barthes as “The Empire of Signs” and named by David Hockney as “perspective of changing points of view”.

All works presented on the show were created in a time-frame of 29 years: from 1991 till 2019.

Large-scale photographs, moving images and art objects arranged in gallery space, highlight ambiguous distinctions between photography and film, as well as pose questions about the future of storytelling through images that are created digitally.

The lack of chronology, operating with scale, showing photos in series of the same theme or juxtaposing details next to shots in a broad plan, serves to emphasize the fact that in visual arts, time and space are created mainly in relation to and reaction with the viewer.