The title of Marek Gardulski's exhibition, "To See Clearly in Ecstasy," is taken from a literary essay on Proust by Jan Błoński
The exhibition was conceived as a "poetic" installation composed of two-sided photographs of various formats and vintage mirrors hung and "intersecting" the gallery space. Mirrors, as fragments of photographic staffage, have been an integral part of Marek Gardulski's photographs since the 1970s and recur throughout his work. The exhibition continues with a selection of over seventy photographs from the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, illustrating the artist's interests through series of studio views, self-portraits and nudes, erotic scenes, depictions of adolescent children and family, still lifes with mirrors, flowers, fruit, and other objects, impressions of the sea and sand, and industrial landscapes.
The photographs form a long frieze along the walls. It begins with one of the first "Self-Portraits" from 1971, a record of an experiment with fire, and ends with another variant from 2011. Between these two, we see a series of photographs from various stages of the artist's life, with the leitmotif of a mirror running through them.
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Marek Gardulski was born in Krakow in 1952. He made his debut in 1979 at the SEM Gallery – Student Club "Pod Jaszczurami" in Krakow. A member of the Polish Art Photographers' Association (ZPAF) since 1981. In the 1980s, he authored the series "Self-Portrait" and "Children's Corner." A United States Information Agency scholarship holder, he collaborated with The International Polaroid Collection (Photokina 1990 – "Selection 5"). In the early 1990s, he turned to documentary photography of industrial spaces with the Solvay set. Participant of the exhibitions: "Around the Decade – Polish Photography of the 1990s" (Museum of Art in Łódź 2002), "Dreamers and Witnesses. Polish Photography of the 20th Century" (National Museum in Krakow – Arsenal 2008), "Polish Photography in the 20th Century" (ZPAF Warsaw 2007), "The 20th Century in Polish Photography from the Collection of the Museum of Art in Łódź" (The Shoto Museum of Art – Tokyo), Krakow Art Salon (Palace of Art, Kraków 2018), and "Ways of Seeing." Collection of the Museum of Art in Łódź (Museum of Art, Łódź 2025). His works are held in numerous Polish and international collections.
The exhibition is accompanied by the publication "Marek Gardulski. Widzęć blask w zachdmucheniu/To See Clearly in Ecstasy," containing a text by Marek Gardulski, a conversation between Andrzej Szczepaniak and the photographer, and illustrative material.
