A world that never sleeps hides amazing stories and beauty that comes to light only at night. The new exhibition at the International Cultural Centre, The Untamed Has No Words: Michał Korta, is a collection of intriguing nocturnal photography and a story of crossing boundaries, of the senses, and the world of animals (and people).
Can the night-time encounter between humans and animals lead to a symbiotic understanding? How to reflect on wild nature in a posthumanist world? At the exhibition, Michał Korta shows The Shadow Line (2012–2024), where he explores the animal world, photographing animals after dark in their natural environment. The photographs are portraits of night hunters traversing forests, fields, and villages in search of food or shelter, and of wild creatures that had to adapt to living in an environment dominated by people.
On show at the ICC medieval cellars, Korta’s series of photographs offer a record of experience skilfully translated by the artist into a visual language. “The project embraces the tenets of posthumanism because the human is no longer a central unit in the world of nature. Formally, I tried to find my own language imitating animal language. I wanted to use blur and movement. On equal rights, I photographed animals with a wide-angle lens, in complete contrast to photography in the style of "National Geographic" – Korta explains. – I intuitively tried to look for a language that we do not understand, because we will never be able to communicate with animals at such a level as we communicate with people. I wanted to suggest this unknown with accidents and other purely photographic techniques”.
The exhibition consists of several elements: granular, "moved" shots of animals and fragments of nature, as well as situational freeze-frames made during night wandering are intertwined with precise studio photos of animal skulls. Photographed on an ultra-black background, they change into almost sculptural forms and at the same time provoke reflection on transience. In the face of our finiteness, we are all animals.
In his work, Korta uses both analogue and digital equipment and even a mobile phone. His photographs taken at night or in very dark conditions are characterised by a specific, disturbing mood. They required precision in the camera settings and creativity in the use of limited lighting, which makes them a fascinating field for exploration. These are photos filled with emotions – peace and violence, things that sting and move. Blurred, "spectral", some almost abstract, the outlines demand from us to focus and "listen closely" to black and white images.
The ICC’s previous exhibition of the artist’s work – Balkan Playground – took place in 2017. Korta, an attentive observer of the Balkan reality, tried to capture the complicated identity of the region and the atmosphere of the world suspended between the past and the present.
Michał Korta (1975) – portrait and documentary photographer, winner of numerous photographic awards. He represents the new generation of photographers for whom showing places and people is inseparably connected with capturing the social, historical or emotional background. In 2015, the Art Verseed portal included him in the group of five most interesting photographers of East-Central Europe. He works with magazines, agencies, and galleries, sometimes also with humanitarian organisations. In addition to Poland, he also worked on photographic projects in Central Asia, the USA, Israel, Africa, and the Balkans. He teaches photography in Poland and Switzerland and is the managing director of Kowalsky Gallery in Bochnia.
