Galeria Kordegarda

curator: Magda Kardasz

Paweł Borkowski (le Fafe) is an artist of the young generation whose debut coincided with the start of the new century – a time when Poland was awash in
a wave of globalisation, when the signs and symbols of progress and the commercialisation of life invaded the landscapes of cities, especially Warsaw. Skyscrapers in contemporary architectonic forms appeared amongst the scattered (and often neglected) remains of what had been preserved of the architectural fabric of the city centre and buildings of soc-modernistic style. The din of visual communication deepened the chaos. Advertising posters and billboards started to encroach on the existing landscape, disturbing
the purity of architectonic categories, often creating humorous associations of words and contexts in unintended ways. Now in the centre of Warsaw, old
tenement buildings, new “filler” developments, historic monuments and hideous illuminated adverts can be found alongside one other. The greatest number of
newcomers were banks, a fact reflected in the number of adverts for different types of financial services.

These are directed to an ever wider group of clients – and thus, unnoticed, the burden of credit begins to way down even on ex-punks and anarchists, and
young artists are often sucked definitively into the world of commerce and adverts. This is an experience that le Fafe has also been through. This exhibition in Kordegarda – prepared as part of the cycle, Room with a view devoted to urban themes – is the latest presentation by this talented artist after a break of several years which he devoted to design work. Paweł
Borkowski is to be found in Warsaw from time to time, sometimes he lives here for a while, and thus he has retained a freshness of vision which permanent residents of the capital habitually lose. His eye, not dimmed by habit, registers paradoxical situations. However, we have to do justice to the artist in stating
that he is willing to turn his ironic optic also on himself. One of the sources of inspiration for the exhibition is the dyslexia that he really suffers from – motifs of dilapidated neons creating linguistic mistakes are intentionally included in the works shown at the exhibition.

Le Fafe’s favoured technique is drawing. In Kordegarda too, it is this medium that seems to dominate, even though the project is multimedia and interactive.
On the external walls are hung pictures which present eclectic fragments of the capital’s landscape in a synthetic way. In these appear the word-games mentioned above and an element of “analogue interaction” (some of the fragments of the composition can be altered by simply pulling a chord). In addition to this group are animated drawings presented on screens. The interior space of the gallery is filled with sculptural forms reminiscent of housing
blocks formed by wooden pallets placed one on top of the other. The aesthetics of this exhibition (a confrontation between walled urban architecture and the provisory nature of wooden constructions) brings to mind May 2005, when the shop-windows of the centre of Warsaw were boarded up as protection against an attack by anti-globalists; an attack that never happened.
Two photographs taken by the artist during these strange days of the Third Summit of the Council of Europe are also to be found at the exhibition.
The wooden “skyscrapers” are rather just scattered within the space than conscientiously positioned, and some of their facades are covered by posters.
The chaotic space of Warsaw often makes a similar impression on us.

Paweł Borkowski’s exhibition Punks/Banks is a humorous and at the same time personal portrait of contemporary Warsaw – a city in a state of changes.