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He is on his own. What to do? Contemplate.
André Gide, Treatise of the Narcissus
Them is a photographic series of self-portraits developed by Wojciech Gilewicz since 2002. The cycle – created with a dual-image filter and through double exposure – is currently composed of about fifty photographs, with more forthcoming.
I n the self-portraits, Wojciech Gilewicz observes himself through the eyes of his alter ego, twin brother, impersonator... ‘I am alone, but dreaming of someone close, I’ve made myself. Who can know you better than yourself?’ – he says. The photographs feature two men in everyday, sometimes even intimate situations. They work, travel and relax together. In fact, they are always together, but separated at the same time, since they can never get closer to one another or touch. There is a distance between them that will never be surmounted. It is enhanced by the fact that the men almost never look at one another directly. Most often, one of them observes the other carefully or they both stare at the camera. In his photographs, Wojciech Gilewicz observes himself as a different person, a separate figure. He looks at his own reflection in the other one like in a mirror. Alike the Narcissus, he will never get close to the object of his desire.
arcissus [...] contemplates on shore the very vision that the craving of love transforms; solitary and boyish Narcissus developed a passion for the ephemeral image; he bends over, thirsty for caress, to quench his desire for love in the river. He bends over and suddenly the phantasm is no more; now all he can see [...] a pair of eyes, his own eyes, looking at his own self. He realises that it is himself – that he is alone – and that he fell in love with the face of his own. [...] Narcissus concludes that a kiss would be unfeasible – image should not be desired; it’s destroyed by any possessive deed1.
The myth of Narcissus lends itself to interpretation as a story of longing that is impossible to satisfy. It is also the theme of non-fulfilment that the series Them tackles. The two men – despite being close – remain lonely. They are separated by an invisible surface of water or mirror.
I n his photographs, Wojciech Gilewicz multiplies figures and images. Not only does he create a second self, whom he scrutinises, but he also adds a mirror to some photographs, which reflects one of the men. ‘If there is only me, the mirror and the camera then what is what, where am I, where is the reflection, what is real if everything is ultimately a mere photograph?’ – Wojciech Gilewicz wonders. This is where the myth of Narcissus recurs like an echo: ‘What you perceive is the shadow of reflected form: nothing of you is in it. It comes and stays with you, and leaves with you, if you can leave’2.
In one of the photographs, the artist and his second self cry, holding photographs of other men. The shadow of the camera is visible on the thigh of one of the twins. But who is the photographer? Who captures the moment when one of the characters in Them opens the toilet door, exposing the other one? Who do they pose for in the souvenir photo from Paris under the Eiffel Tower? Who is actually looking at whom, who is observing, and who is being observed?
The photographs from the Them series tell a story of loneliness, longing and non-fulfilment. At the same time, they tackle the problem of blurring the boundaries between reality and its artistic representation – the issue which has long been present in the painting and photography-painting works by Wojciech Gilewicz.
2 Ovid, Metamorphoses, translated by A.S. Kline, p.157
