Tytus Szabelski-Różniak: Artist talk

Presentation and discussion with the Polish artist on the occasion of the presentation of his works at the exhibition Critical Infrastructures.

Tytus Szabelski-Różniak presented photographs of the Druzhba pipeline. He has previously explored this topic in his Divide and Connect series. He views infrastructure as a tool for building trade relations and for waging conflict. The issue of the pipeline acquired special salience after February 2022, when Russia launched another phase of military aggression against Ukraine. The name of the pipeline seems especially ironic in this situation. Photographs show a section of the pipeline running from Siberia to refineries in Płock, Poland, and Schwedt, Germany. The structure rises above the surface of the land where it crosses the River Narew, between the Zegrzyński reservoir and the town of Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki. The composition accompanying the photographs is a recording of the local soundscape. It combines the sounds of nature with the roar of the engines of military helicopters and transport planes, as well as the sound of the pipeline itself, which became the subject of Hubert Karmiński’s music.

Tytus Szabelski-Różniak is a photographer and visual artist. He graduated in journalism and social communication at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland, and photography at the University of Arts in Poznań. He is a finalist of Polish and international competitions for the best art master’s diploma work (Gdańsk, 2016; Prague, 2017) and recipient of the Konrad Pustoła scholarship for socially engaged photographers (2017), Visegrad Fund Sound and Visual Arts Residency (Trafó Gallery, Budapest, 2021) and Biennale Warszawa Residency (2020). Tytus currently works at the Visual Narratives Laboratory at Łodź Film School. His work will also be part of Triennale SEFO 2024 in Olomouc. https://www.tytusszabelski.com

Artist talk with Tytus Szabelski-Różniak is an accompanying event of the exhibition Critical Infrastructures, co-organized by the National Institute of Architecture and Urban Planning.

The exhibition is a part of the “Networks of Support” project, financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland under the Inspiring Culture Programme.

Co-organized by the Polish Institute in Prague and Fotograf.Zone.