Our presentation at Paris Internationale confronts a similar approach to the most classic artistic techniques. Both artists – Paul Czerlitzki and Piotr Skiba – do not “paint” or “sculpt” in the traditional way. Their approach is, on the one hand, “cold”, objective, methodical, reductive, and on the other hand, based on emotions, personal experiences, open to chance, errors.

Paul Czerlitzki’s work takes part in a reflection on painting and its material components. The artist has therefore selected a methodological process with which he can repeatedly renegotiate, discover and critically examine painting’s material preconditions, i.e., the frame, the canvas and paint, and the objective, namely, to produce a (panel) painting. He dismantles existing orders by using the canvas as a membrane through which to apply or press colours. He also positions the canvas in relation to the space, as in an installation.

Piotr Skiba in his work clearly underlines the physical presence of things and people, putting everything on the same level. His attention is focused on the potential of “lowest rank” disposables. Skiba uses mass-produced objects, parts and materials related to basic, universal human needs. Skiba’s objects seem to evoke a world where things have taken control, where the human body has only left traces. His archaeological excavations describe a man who tries to oppose nature and fails, leaving a feeling of emptiness and melancholy.