untitled (Congress)

Roman Lipski (1969- ) was born in Nowy Dwór Gdański and has lived and worked in Berlin since 1989. The presented painting, which is untitled in line with the artist's chosen approach, is from a period inspired by photographs taken during his numerous journeys, including those to Poland, which served as a technical sketchbook and a collection of motifs that were later transformed into monumental compositions. The painterly worlds that Lipski created at that time went far beyond the banality of the photographed scenes through his skilful development of atmosphere, disturbing colours and the enigmatic aura of his canvases. Urban motifs play a major role in his iconography - sections of housing estates, building outlines and elements of industrial infrastructure captured by the eye of the camera during the political transformation of Central and Eastern Europe from the 1990s onwards. Paradoxically, the scenes Lipsky paints speak volumes about human nature and experience, despite the exclusion of people from their field of representation. The same is true of a painting in the Szczecin Collection in which the motif of box-like blocks of flats is accompanied by the inscription CONGRESS in an unusual arrangement. Here, the block of flats is not only a specific visual phenomenon, but above all a setting for social relations. Their character and intensity, although not revealed in the story, are suggested by the bright, energetic colours and the meaning of the text introduced into the image. Congress implies a meeting, an interaction, but also a confrontation. In the context of life in a block of flats, this is sometimes an unintentional encounter, and the confrontation takes place between the diverse users of a small, shared space. The high temperature of living together is accompanied by children's games and the manifestation of neighbourly relations. The block of flats, which offers a whole range of human characters and emotions, has become encrusted with numerous and contradictory myths - from the nostalgic vision of community to the metaphor of a stigmatising space that increases pathological behaviour and excludes privacy. Lipski's dynamic and ambiguous painting brings all these trains of thought together in a vivid image. Magdalena Lewoc