Ausstellung »Agata Madejska«

Agata Madejska finds her artistic themes in urban space. In
her photographic series she isolates architectonic
structures, such as monuments and objects found in
playgrounds like slides and swings, from their surrounding
cityscape. Her very precise and slow working method
(Madejska’s series consist of barely more than ten
photographs and are several years in the making) reflects
the perfection of the way she finds and treats images. The
artist, born in Warsaw in 1979, takes an almost scientific
approach to her topic. She researches, makes sketches and
notes and searches for a long time until she has found her
motifs. An almost conservative, yet decidedly artistic
understanding of the medium of photography is evident in
her works. She uses an analog method for all her pictures,
no artificial light, and includes the natural weather
conditions. Ideogram (2007–2009), a series of eight
pictures each measuring approx. 60 x 45 cm, was
photographed against a grayish-white sky. The series shows
solitary high-rises that, with views concentrating on their
upper sections, look isolated from the cityscape. The artist
has omitted all interfering factors. These portraits of
buildings are cool and delicate at once. They have strong
graphic quality, like an architectural sketch, and are
structured solely by the braces of the glass facades. In
terms of color, the pictures are almost monochrome. A
withdrawal of color is apparent in all Agata Madejska’s
works, including the latest series The Order of Solids, which
she began in 2010. Once again, Madejska demarcates her
motifs – monuments, sculptures and fountains - from their
environment. In the abstraction of the representation, it is
sometimes the case that the objects from the public space
that dominate the picture can only be deciphered by means
oft he thin boarder, showing buildings and trees. Madejska
is interested in their function as foils for a cultural context
and can be seen as a powerful and at the same time
abstracting exploration of history / the story and its
representation. Moreover, The Order of Solids illustrates
Madejska’s interest and focus sculpture, three-
dimensionality and her understanding of photography as
the starting and not the end point of her artist work. In
presenting her images she always seeks to sculpturally
expand her image space. It is irrelevant whether, as in the
latest development of her works, there are actually objects
in the space or whether this specific interest in space is
expressed in the framing of the pictures. The precision of
her working method is evident in her entire oeuvre – in the
motivic stringency and her control of the print, form of
presentation and installation. Text: Lisa Schmidt
Agata Madejska, born in Warschau in 1979, lives and works
in London and Essen. She studied at Folkwang University of
Arts in Essen and the Royal College of Art in London. Last
year she received the scholarship of the Federal Land of
North Rhine-Westphalia as well as a scholarship of the Arts
Foundation North Rhine-Westphalia for a monographic
publication. Her work was part of the exhibition "MADE IN
GERMANY ZWEI" of the Kestnergesellschaft in Hannover.

Alongside the Stuttgart exhibition, Madejska's works can be
seen in "Twisted Entities. Contemporary Polish Art" at the
Museum Morsbroich in Leverkusen.