WHAT ABOUT THE INSIDE?

All Images ©Aneta Grzeszykowska and Jan Smaga, from the series "Plan" , 2003

"Plan" by Aneta Grzeszykowska and Jan Smaga consists of a series of detailed photographs of 10 Warsaw interiors produced by compiling numerous photographs taken from a digital camera rigged to a track system on the ceiling. Each was then fitted into the familiar geometric layout of an apartment plan; rendered in white space and disappearing into the edges of the page. The resulting stills are vertical plunges into the banalities of domestic life - unmade beds, dirty dishes and open books. It is simply a story of life, of every detail and a documentary of the precise moments we each encounter within the walls of our own home. It is not something that is ever meant to be seen. Each composition is a perfect documentation of how an individual organizes and occupies his or her immediate environment. When approached with patience and curiosity , each piece of work reveals the subtle relationships between objects and the environment that they inhabit. It also begs to raise broader questions like Heidegger:"What is it to dwell" (Building, Dwelling, Thinking.Martin Heidegger, 1971).

Grezesykowska and Smaga's show us how different people live; every gender, at every age, ordinary or bohemian. Each interprets the space between four walls surrounding themselves with objects and surfaces that create a meaning on their own. Take away the equisite perisan rugs, the fluffy white duvet, the still warm water in the tub, and you are left with generic squares on a designer's trace paper. Modest one- or two- bedroom apartments , none are too unusual or outlandish, however in their spatial congestion and scarcity they do convey a common culture specificty as to be found in Warsaw.

All Images ©Aneta Grzeszykowska and Jan Smaga, from the series "Plan" , 2003

Being an architecture student, I am used to composing space in terms of the plan. However there is always a distance maintained between my 2H pencil and the plan I am tracing. I organize space, I control and comand each line, each corner. This isn't a common view for everyone; it is one that is authorative and evokes surveillance. There is something unusual about this exhibition of photographs that compells me to look deeper, further. It is either the unusual angle of observation or the mere fact that I am looking at something which I shouldn't be. It belongs to you. It is your space. The sense of inherent intrusion in each view is conflicting and presents a perversity in both the viewer and the subject. A woman drapes herself over a soft armchair, naked, bending one knee, almost posing for the camera's eye - do the inhabitants desire self-exposure?This leads to a discussion about reality television and the abject fascination with the mundane details of other people's lives. Can this be a tool to building a connection between people? The omnipresent eye of digital technology in both private and public space intertwines the rush of excitement of spectacle with the conscious presence of surveillance. Gaston Bacelard in Poetics of Space declares that " Being does not see itself", however 'Plan' peels away the layers of infrustructure to reveal lives that are in full view, exposing the very notion of " being".

All Images ©Aneta Grzeszykowska and Jan Smaga, from the series "Plan" , 2003

The views challenges the idea of interiority, which is given a new role in social relationships. Perhaps it is envisioned as an all-exposed entity wrapped in permeable screen that reveals and defines, rather than enclosing and restricting. It is a subversion of traditional occupation of private space which has always been buried and hidden from public view.


Interiors at Risk Precarious Spaces in Contemporary Art. By Ewa Lajer-Burcharth