Adam Garnek

U–jazdowski / Program / Exhibitions / Adam Garnek

18/10/2024—19/01/2025

exhibition

The Luminosity of Steel:
Machines, Screens, Instruments

Adam Garnek’s exhibition is another in a series presenting artists whose works are in the collections of the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art.

Garnek studied sculpture at the Poznań State Higher School of Fine Arts, graduating in 1988 in the class of Prof. Jan Berdyszak. He creates Dada/Fluxus-inspired objects, echoing Alexander Calder’s echomobiles or Jean Tinguely’s machines. In his works, Garnek combines his creative imagination with the ingenuity of a constructor and a distinct sense of the absurd. His interactive sculptural forms are a reflection of his interest in everyday human activity. He independently crafts unique machines, instruments, and devices, primarily using steel as his main material. In the earlier stages of his career, he also incorporated elements sourced from recycled mechanical devices.

Adam Garnek’s inspiration for these new works comes from the desire to create a specific situation in which his mobile objects serve merely as elements rather than ends in themselves, each having a strictly defined role or task. Their function is revealed through interaction with the viewer. Paradoxically, however, their operation is completely impractical. The machines do not help the user in any way, and in fact they complicate and hinder the very tasks they were designed for. Among Garnek’s creations are peculiar vehicles powered by human muscle, which slow down movement to the point of absurdity; unusual quasi-practical machines whose sole purpose is self-generation; and complex devices for transporting items that require more time and effort to operate than simply moving an object by hand. He also creates machines for drawing on sand or paper, the activation of which requires the rotation of heavy sleeves. In this context, it is not the effect that matters, but the act of engaging with and activating the objects by the viewers.

After a period of constructing complex vehicles, machines and intriguing devices for performing simple tasks, Adam Garnek began working on screens – an increasingly essential part of everyone’s daily life. The pervasive fascination with the flat rectangle and the focus on its glowing surface has led Garnek to create a series of stainless steel screens in various sizes. In order to extract energy from them, the artist uses small square plates that flicker when set in motion, reflecting light.

Another distinct group of Garnek’s works are visual instruments, which he has been building since 2009 to resemble musical instruments, but lacking the ability to produce melodies. Among them are visual stringed, keyboard and wind instruments. Each of them creates drawings or paintings through the action of the artist “playing” it.

Adam Garnek’s machines, screens, and instruments propose a specific way of perceiving certain aspects of reality, which may evoke an almost anarchistic attitude towards the technological revolution unfolding before our eyes. An inseparable factor that gives meaning to his works is the power of human muscles and the experience of action, which has nothing to do with efficiency, but a lot to do with useful uselessness.