Rozpadłe passe-par-tout II

This is the so-called layered graphics, made of several cut transparent foils put on one another and filled in with black paper. The positioning of the black paper refers to the rectangular cut-out inside the traditional passe-partout, thus making the viewer recall the traditional convention in which the rectangular work occupies the centre of the frame. The work makes us realize the disintegration of the conventional passe-partout, whereas the cut-out and the play with absence, or with lack, in its centre de(con)structs the idea of the painting as both an open window and a flat surface covered with paint according to an established order. The absorption of reflections from the outside, called by Jan Berdyszak ephemeral photography, turns the painting into something changeable, processual, and dependent on the moment of viewing. Unlike in workshop graphics, one cannot speak of a copy in this case, where the very idea of the matrix is completely re-defined. [M. Smolinska]