Solid Maze is the photographer's latest publication. On 160 pages it contains over 300 photographs taken over the last twenty years. Most of them are previously unpublished pictures and his latest works from recent years. Solid Maze also includes notes, personal texts, and an insert. It is Zbierski's most personal book, a photographic labyrinth of emotions and memory. The publication was released in France by Andre Frere Editions and in Poland by the Wydawnictwo PWSFTviT publishing house.
The exhibition will take place at A Space For Photography during Les Rencontres d'Arles as part of the festival's OFF programme. The installation has been prepared especially for this location — the artist reveals the creative process, using elements from the book to construct the gallery space. By combining texts and images in space, he creates a unique territory on the borderline between a labyrinth, a diary, and an internal map. The exhibition will also feature selected works from the Edition 777 collection and several of the artist's earlier works.
As Kuba Szkudlarek, curator of Zbierski's exhibition writes: “Solid Maze” is a photographic meditation on memory, time, and emotion. The exhibition does not form a single narrative but creates a labyrinthine space. It is a place that does not seek a punchline. Instead, it suspends time. “Solid Maze” does not attempt to be a pure archive or a diary, although it contains both of these orders. On the one hand, it is based on photographs collected over two decades—hundreds of negatives, contact sheets, images found after time, reinterpreted. On the other hand, it pulsates with an emotionality that cannot be pigeonholed. It is a very personal publication, saturated with memory, longing, and intuition. Entering it is like entering the space of the author as well as your own memory. Every reader, consciously or not, looks at these images, searching for themselves in them.
Based on intuitive, surrealistic narration, Piotr Zbierski's photographic series constantly raise questions about the relationship between nature and culture, and between memory and narration. What happens between experience and the act of storytelling? Where does memory end and a diary begin? His photography also combines material reality with a wider, spiritual understanding of the world. The works, very poetic and full of pure emotions, invite reflection, exploring the depths of the human spirit.
In the words of the author himself: Nowadays more and more I think of photography as the river, on which both banks one stays at the same time. The stories are on the first shore – well constructed, thoughtful, intentional narratives enclosed in the form of books, exhibitions – in layouts to be seen. The spoken anecdotes, chemistry of emotions, edition works, knowledge and feelings. But on the other bank there is a storehouse of photographic negatives and contact sheets. The whole thing together with emotional and factual memory. A solid maze of all possibilities and all that's left untold. Here the story is open-ended, like the act of speaking, which only here has the chance to become like hearing. Moreover, on the second shore photography is no longer only about love and sincerity, but also about time. This natural location seems to be no longer an intentional story, but rather the possibility. And maybe the closest one I know to visit the real past events and present longings and fantasies. Common lines cannot be written only by one hand.
Exhibition organized in cooperation with Rezo Agency
Curator: Kuba Szkudlarek
Piotr Zbierski (born 1987) studied photography at the National Film School in Łódź, where he gained his PhD in 2021. In 2012, he won the prestigious Leica Oscar Barnack Newcomer Award for young photographers for his series Pass by me. His work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions around the world, including Les Rencontres d'Arles, Łódź Fotofestival, and Fotofever in Paris. His works are included in the collections of the Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts and the Musée de l'Élysée. In 2016, he published his first book, Push the Sky Away, a triptych of three series he had been working on for the past nine years. In 2020 and 2021, he published his second book, Echoes Shades. At the end of 2024, his third publication, Solid Maze Of All That's Left Untold, was released.
https://www.piotrzbierski.com/
Kuba Szkudlarek – Master of Arts, photographer, homo faber searching for ways to describe his own narrative. Founder and curator of Galeria S35 in Łódź — a place for meetings, experimentation, and independent narrative. He is close to grassroots movements and has recently been turning his attention to street and ephemeral art. Participant in individual and collective exhibitions. Born in Zielona Góra. He studied Art History at the University of Łódź, and then Photography at the Łódź Film School.
Opening:
20.09.2025 | 17:00
Opening hours:
Monday–Friday | 10:00–18:00
Saturday | 10:00–16:00
Bydgoszcz Art Center