Natalia LL „Art and Freedom”

Although Natalia LL uses in her works a lot of different forms of art (videos, installations, performances, paintings), since the beginning of her career photography had a special place in the area of her interests. As a student of the Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw, she received first prize in the National Competition of Student Photography (in Toruń), which – as she later said - pushed her to explore this medium a bit more. Many of her early works were unknown for a larger public. They were mainly portraits of her close ones, black and white pictures inspired by surrounding PRL reality. It can be said that the artist’s experimentation with a camera started to inspire her quest of freedom. Her works such as Intimate Registration which is a literal record of sexual intercourse, or Consumer Art – registration of the moment of consumption by young girls, are a bold self discovery in a sexual revolution of the 60s and 70s in Poland. „Only in the reality of art we can become authentic, independent and free”. – she wrote in the 1987 Manifesto Art and Freedom. It’s like the three golden rules for an artist; spoken by the artist, will resonate in the room and give the appropriate tone to the exhibition.