Share

Widmer+Theodoridis contemporary is pleased to welcome the German photographer Agata Madejska to its main gallery space. The artist has decided upon a series compilation to include 'Kosmos', Ideogram' and 'Work-in-progress' for her first one-woman show in Switzerland.

With the title 'Objet trouvé', Madejska refers to the term 'ready-made', where practical function is subordinate to form. The composition, or rather the change in perspective, leads to a new object detached from its original purpose in such a way that it no longer has anything to do with the actual function of the object. Objects that appear uninteresting in an everyday context are removed from the mass to become the focus of attention. In reducing the object to its form, Madejska does not only cast an exacting eye upon the surface of a known object, but modulates a new, independent identity characterised primarily by a controlled use of light.

Since Plato's "Allegory of the Cave", light and shadow have become unavoidably synonymous with the questions and ideas of existence. It was with the invention of photography that man came into possession of an apparently incorruptible instrument for portraying and documenting a truthful image of our world. The idea that each period of time and each generation can leave behind impressions and reflections to world history and is orientated towards and determined by those impressions and reflections can be viewed as a working hypothesis.

Madejska's approach is defined by the exact observation and precise elucidation of the visible and non-visible. Timing and light exposure draws lines and separates light from dark. Madejska uses this creative cut to develop new images of reality. She designs unique, sculptural playgrounds, tower blocks and monuments reminiscent of platonic building plans.

Agata Madejska lives and works in Dusseldorf and London. She graduated with a degree in photography from the University of Duisberg-Essen in 2007 after studying under the tutelage of Gisela Bullacher and began MA studies at the Royal College of Art in 2008. Her works have been shown in various exhibitions across Europe including at the 2nd International Photography Festival in Leipzig, the 'Haus der Photographie' in the Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, the 'Martin Gropius Bau', Berlin and the Musée de l'Élysée in Lausanne. 'Gute Aussichten', one of Germany's most renowned competitions for young photographers, enabled Madejska to present not just one but two of her works ('Kosmos' 2008 and 'alpha' 2010) to a broader audience.