Pre-war photography
During last year’s edition of the Vintage Photo Festival, as part of the Galeria 2B+L program, a series of events took place exploring photography’s relations to technology, painting, memory, and to photography itself. This year, Józef Żuk Piwkowski and ZbyZiel will present works created during an outdoor session held in Łódź at the Book Art Museum on August 14–15, 2025.
The artists introduce their exhibition with questions and reflections on time and space:
What happens to time when we look at a photographic image?
Could photography be an uncertain proof supporting the multiverse theory?
When does history begin? In the present.
Photography records the very moment of transition from reality into history.
They also share their associations evoked by black-and-white photography:
Two women at their looms.
A mustached man leaning over a desk.
A window of an apartment on Piotrkowska Street.
Against floral wallpaper, a pensive woman with a cigarette.
A sandy, winding road through fields. A small silhouette of a horse on the right.
An almost completely black background, out of which emerges something – perhaps a fragment of an ear.
Józef Żuk Piwkowski
Engineer, photographer, filmmaker, discoverer of KopiujProszę and PamięćMedialna (“MediaMemory”). Founder of KSW / KsięgaSłówWszystkich (“The Book of All Words”), Galeria 2B+ (R, DC, M, L), the publishing house TytułRoboczy, and numerous artistic projects since 1975. Born in Łódź, he has also worked in Warsaw, Paris, Cannes, Berlin, Sofia, and New York. Currently based in Bydgoszcz, at StudioRejs / 2B – a house on the water – he develops the concept of PortretWielokrotny (“Multiple Portrait”) and co-runs Galeria 2B+L with ZbyZiel.
ZbyZiel
Painter, photographer, and art community activist. Since 1990, he has been actively engaged in the Bydgoszcz art scene (including Szkoła Bydgoska, Galeria Kantorek, Świetlica Artystyczna Trytony, F.R.G.S. Mózg, Sanatorium, Czarny Karzeł, and now, together with Józef Żuk Piwkowski, co-creator of Galeria 2B+L). He has exhibited individually and in group shows in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Greece.
Opening:
21.09.2025 | 12:00
Closing:
19.10.2025 | 12:00
The gallery is accessible by appointment (no regular opening hours).
Józef Żuk Piwkowski: +48 601 390 205
ZbyZiel: +48 888 536 581
Galeria 2B+L