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Wojciech Gilewicz is focused predominantly on the landscape of the most immediate surroundings. Hence he imposes upon himself interesting painting tasks and manages to find intriguing solutions. The point of departure for the works on display at the Foksal Gallery was the installation of three white stretcher frames in the small park on the gallery’s premises. They were visible from the gallery’s window, which is usually covered.
Using photographs, tests and calculations, thus tapping into the complete array of his methods of creating painting illusion, the artist created three works, which featured what they actually covered. The landscape was in a way patched by artistic means. The impression was that Gilewicz repaired the view from the window of the gallery. The paintings merged with the surroundings to such an extent that, looking from the window, one could hardly notice where they were. In a certain manner, they took the form of landscape camouflage.
Yet these two visual situations were presented by Gilewicz at the exhibition exclusively in the form of small photographs, and it was the paintings brought from the park that constituted the focal point. It turned out that the canvases had no regular shape, since they had been adjusted to the perspective imposed by their position in the park and the observation point – the window. What once (in the park) constituted a clear illusion of reality, later (inside the gallery) resembled a sophisticated aesthetic action.
Engaging in an intellectual game with the audience, Gilewicz revealed the process of creating painting illusion, which became the focal theme of the exhibition. Through what was conducted, he demonstrated the relative nature of perception of our surrounding reality. Gilewicz encourages to watch and juxtapose several representations and views of the landscape. Including the view from the window of the gallery.
Considering the earlier works of Wojciech Gilewicz, it seems as though he is intrigued by the sheer, often humdrum, process of creating illusion, and it is exactly this process that the artist considers to be as important as the ultimate effect of the work, or maybe even more vital and more fascinating. In the work ‘City-Estate-Studio-Apartment’, two paintings consisted of over 1000 pictures taken by the artist from the balcony of his apartment on the ninth floor of a tower block. Then, he openly declared: ‘I am interested in everything that is connected with the process of painting creation – steps and moves made by the painter at work, paint splashed beyond canvass. I believe I will be able one day to create a painting that will embrace everything that surrounds me, who I am and what I do’ (A. Kowalska in: Gazeta Wyborcza, 2.02.2001). In this project, he was building his own, imaginary landscape from the elements of the view seen on a daily basis. The landscape included the pictures of the surroundings, put together into one image, like a jjgsaw. Gilewicz is interested not only in ‘painting-in’ photographs of landscape into his works (City-Estate-Studio-Apartment), but also the reverse process of merging them with the real landscape (like during the presentation at Foksal).
He seeks the ties that bind photography and painting. The artist finishes painting once the visible difference between the painting and its surroundings has disappeared completely; it is the painting that absorbs what it represents. This strategy had already been used by Gilewicz in April 2000 at the Biała Gallery in Lublin. Even more radical was the application of the ‘camouflage’ process at the Fondation Deutsch de la Meurthe in Paris, where a series of his oil paintings was installed within the architectural space, so that they became indistinguishable from their urban environment (see: Obieg 1/2005 pp.44-47). It has to be admitted that tricking the audience into seeking paintings concealed within reality is against almost all associations with painting whose function is to represent.
