Marcin Owczarek – °1985 Poland
At the age of twenty, he began studying photography at The College of Photography in Wroclaw, graduating with an honorable mention for his cycle Brave New World, which presented an idiosyncratic version of a future world. Owczarek is fascinated with the influence of new technologies over human life, particulary within urban space. Focusing on the issues of mechanization and standardization, he tackles them in an antiutopian style. Owczarek is interested in shamanism, gnosticism, alchemy. His art has also been influenced by the content of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, as well as his studies in cultural anthropology.
‘PARADISE LOST’: AN ESSAY – Marcin Owczarek, 2015
THE WAY HE WORKS. TEXT BY JUTTA MELCHERS.
Photo Artist Marcin Owczarek compares the initial moment of creation of a new artwork to a voyage. He uses thousands of single photographs, each of which he considers with extreme care before commencing the artistic process. He starts by sketching the image he wishes to generate on a piece of paper; a purely conceptual step. He subsequently turns to the computer to “give birth” to what he wanted to achieve via his sketch, resulting in a collage. The time required for this creation process differs greatly. “The City of Illusion”, for example, took Marcin Owczarek three months to finish, with the artist working on his collages between twelve and fourteen hours each day.
At the beginning of his career as an artist, Owczarek used to create traditional collages on paper. Meanwhile, he works exclusively at the computer, as digital collage offers him many more opportunities to articulate his thought processes and perceptions. It also allows him to connect complex elements and reflections and to shape them into a coherent universe. His art consists of photography, painting and traditional collage elements, which he combines with the support of a computer programme called Photoshop.
The essence of his art lies in his attempt to create the passage of time, which will remain contemporary in centuries to come. This is the result of past history, his present observations and, finally, his personal prophecies. He believes that each decade of human history is equally important in order to comprehend the entire process. This is why some themes are essentially universal and will recur as long as this world exists. In the final analysis, Marcin Owczarek believes that art is activism; it should demolish walls as opposed to building them up. As an artist, he describes the feelings and places that other people seek to hide from their fellow men, or simply forget.
By using many symbols intentionally, Marcin Owczarek wishes his art to be interpreted at many levels. In his eyes, the collage is the ideal medium to reflect both human virtues and imperfections.
