Gray Memory by Bogdan Konopka

I remember his works from this period, when he registered the ongoing process of churches being turned from sacral to lay places in France; including a car show room in a former temple. A number of Polish photographers attempted to face an extremely hard and complex topic of Jewish cemeteries, to mention the exhibitions by Jerzy Lewczyński, Waldemar Jamy, Włodzimierz Małka, Tomasz Tomaszewski. All of them worked in the absence of standing rules which have not been defined till today. The one who formulates them will open new horizons for coming photographers.

The majority of works, presented on the Łódź exhibition, was made in 2008 and 2009. One does not know why Konopka decided to touch this problem again. This is not an easy topic. It calls for defining one's own aesthetics and general vision that can represent a whole spectrum of varying emotions. As in Gray Paris, the artist's way of seeing has been based on the memory, where one can easily decipher a sense of nostalgia, melancholy, with no grudge whatsoever against the world or history. Not only trees and macebas are visible in the grayness. Occasionally, there are ferns overshadowing the tombs. Nevertheless, while analyzing this exhibition, I am looking for indicators or elements of similar style. I find these in more realistic, sentimental and frequently surrealistic photographs by Eva Rubinstein from the 80's. She photographed the city of Łódź and the Jewish cemetery where her grandfather had been buried.

What indicates a new look by Konopka? The belief in the Jewish folklore "kingdom of the dybbuk" - presented in the text written by the author, and published in the catalogue - should be rather approached as a literary trick making one consider how rational the vision could be. However, it breaks mechanical aspects of the medium and reveals non material qualities sensed as a wind blowing leaves (Tarnogród); an open gate (Szydłowiec); white stone stairs leading in an unknown direction. Konopka has showed the condition/ moment of history after the catastrophe, as evidence by the overturned macebas. Does nature conduct a subsequent act of destruction?

There is no explicit answer to this question, since there are cases when nature perfectly coexists with the cemetery (Bobowa). At other occasions, a man has to interfere, to put down trees in order to protect graves.

One of the most beautiful and symbolic photos was taken in Biłgoraj (May 25th 2008). Plants are growing in the middle of a broken maceba decorated with a bas- relief featuring a palm in a blessing gesture. The pure, white color of this broken, nevertheless still "living" tomb is simply incredible. Why is it white in contrast to many others; perhaps the photographer knows. The post catastrophe scene has been watched by the artist from afar, as though he did not have a moral right to come closer to the gravestones built into the cemetery wall. This has been visible not only in Tarnogród. This is the way to destroy the Memory; make it disappear. This has been true not only about Jewish cemeteries. This has been a popular custom to place remnants of former necropolis outside church elevations. On the other hand, this may not be at all an evidence of the obliterated memory; on the contrary, the proof of its lasting and an attempt to retain it?

Gray Memory has been not only a distinguishing mark of the classic and influential technique by Bogdan Konopka, present in Poland since the 90's. This has been the form of seeing, remembering and registering the oddities of this world. Applying seemingly very simple frames and composition, the artist has mastered the detail, and color against the monochromatic grays, and the weird vigor of nature; thus rendering the sacral vision of the world. All these achieved, while maintaining the apparent rationalism.

This reminds the aesthetics by Andrey Tarkovsky who revealed - in the Mirror - the sacral aspects of the world in a delicate blow of wind, as accurately as any artist before and since.

The gray memory finally refers also to the memory of the artist, the memory of the deceased, including his closest. In this nostalgic manner he comes to terms with his own life, not merely with Jewish cemeteries. He has transgressed a columnist, painful approach moving towards the personal and the universal.

Bogdan Konopka, "Gray Memory", the FF Gallery, Łódź, October - November 2009.