July 16 - September 6, 2020

Colleagues and friends. Photography of Zelda Klimkowska.

The exhibition presents cycles of individual and collective portraits of the inhabitants of the Warsaw district of Praga and of the local communities. Zelda Klimkowska, the author of the photographs, persuaded her neighbours living next door and slightly farther away to take part in the session, considering it worthwhile to document the time of the then significant shifts in the image of the district.

At the turn of the century, numerous art studios, photo ateliers, independent theatres, and clubs began to pop up throughout Praga. The new artistic “migration” had to establish neighbourly relations with the district’s inhabitants. The rapid success in this field sparked great interest in the district among the residents of the entire capital city of Warsaw. Klimkowska followed the transformations of Praga through the stories of individual people: those who had settled down earlier and the newcomers to the district. Hence the title of the exhibition: Colleagues and friends.

Zelda Klimkowska asked mainly the people she contacted every day to have their portraits made: a saleswoman from a corner shop, a regular from a nearby café and a “guardian” of the backyard at 3 Inżynierska Street. She asked them to indicate the location of the photographic session, preferably a private space where the portrayed person would feel comfortable. In the case of the images of Praga communities, the author offered the protagonists a studio session, during which she laboriously composed the sitters to resemble group portraits of great painting masters.

The series completed in collaboration with Cezary Chojnowski and Michał Krull.

 

Exhibition curator: Romuald Woźniak

 

Colleagues and friends. Photography of Zelda Klimkowska

 

July 16- September 6, 2020

 

curators

Romuald Woźniak

Zelda Klimkowska

 

exhibition design

Romuald Woźniak

Zelda Klimkowska

 

graphic design

Joanna Bębenek

 

production and implementation

Krzysztof Cedro, Ksenia Góreczna, Krzysztof Hernik, Ewa Lenczewska, Monika Mazurek, Krzysztof Świerczewski, Leszek Sokołowski