In the 60 years since the erec­tion of Warsaw’s Palace of Cul­ture and Science, this peculiar architec­tural struc­ture remains an impenetrable aesthetic phenomenon. Błażej Pindor’s photography project, created for the pur­poses of Wal­demar Baraniewski’s publication titled “Palace in Warsaw” (“Pałac w Warszawie”), is the first ear­nest attempt at an artistic inter­pretation of the space within and around the Palace. The point of depar­ture for these images were photographs from the 1950s, especially those of Zbyszko Siemaszko and Zdzisław Wdowiński – distributed through photo agen­cies and prin­ted on post­cards, published in magazines and travel books – which formed the cannon for depic­ting the most con­spicuous struc­ture in post-​war Warsaw for many years to come. Pindor referen­ces these clas­sic images using a similar tech­nique, shooting on 4×5-inch black-and-white negatives, taken in the summer and fall of 2014. However, the method and intent of his work is radically dif­ferent, geared towards the decon­struc­tion of this ear­lier form of represen­tation. In approaching the Palace and navigating its halls, the photographer created more than picture-​postcards, cap­turing significant details, the draughtsman’s atten­tion to detail, the lavish materials and astonishing planes used to create these interiors. Primarily, the essence of Pindor’s photography is an analysis of the impact the struc­ture has on the viewer – dominating, rescaled, sel­fish and opulent beyond measure, at the same time raw and seductive.

For the book, 90 images were selec­ted from among over 200. The exhibition presents a selec­tion of 12 photographs that com­prise a limited edition collector’s port­folio. They epitomize the most charac­teristic and recognizable elements of the Palace’s architec­ture, while also serving as a sug­gestion for a new for­mula for depic­ting and exem­plifying Pindor’s charac­teristic, per­fec­tionist style. Through his lens, architec­tural photography becomes less about documen­tation and more about rein­ter­pretation. The focus of the discus­sion at hand is between the aspects of architecture’s way of organizing our space and the traditions of modern photography.

An essen­tial part of the show is also its arran­gement made by the artist and a specially made bul­letin board in the front win­dows of the gallery.

Błażej Pindor (born 1973) studied architec­ture at the Warsaw Univer­sity of Tech­nology and photography at FAMU in Prague. His most recent photography projects cen­tered on the moder­nist traditions of Polish architec­ture and design, inc­luding “Revisiting Romuald Gutt” (“Rewizyta u Romualda Gutta”, 2013-2014) and “Objects and Poses” (Obiekty i pozy”, 2014).