polski
Michał Solarski, Tomasz Liboska: Cut It Short
4.12.2024
19:00 – Exhibition opening: Foyer Forum
19:30 – A meeting around the exhibition and the album: Klub FAMA
Białostocki Ośrodek Kultury, ul. Legionowa 5
Michał Solarski and Tomasz Liboska are from Goleszów, an ordinary town, like many others in Poland.
It’s at the beginning of the 90s, Freddie Mercury has just kicked the bucket—to be honest, he was a talented guy who had a few good numbers, but his moustache was never a part of our story. We are a gang of guys in worn-out jeans, we give barbershops a wide berth, and we drop our butts on the ground. The old cement factory is still here, dominating the view from windows, and its brick chimneys seem to reach to the sky. But screw the sky! We’d rather drag ourselves, flat broke, from one bar to the next. Only yesterday Solidarity was overthrowing the commies, today capitalism promises our parents the moon. But screw the moon! Screw your money! Everything will collapse soon, your lying world will collapse, and we will have a share in the crash. Tonight we’re throwing a bender, you should know that something powerful is brewing in our minds. We have our own music, we’ll turn sixteen soon, we want to get laid and to grow up with class.
Our friendship has already survived thirty years, and we aren’t worried about the next thirty. We have been and will be brothers. But not everything went as planned. The dream of our own band and life on the road went up in smoke. We have frittered some ideas away, others were throttled by boredom. Time has not stopped, although for a long stretch we were convinced we had it in the palm of our hands. But somehow the bastard managed to wriggle out and start running away. First came universities, various schools and various towns. After that each of us blazed his own trail far from Goleszów. Several places have changed beyond recognition, some have been lost forever. This is also a story of our memories. That’s why we are coming back. And by the way, we have started patronizing the barber.
Tomasz Liboska – photographer, documentarian. He graduated from the Institute of Creative Photography at the University of Silesia in Opava and Ethnology at the University of Silesia in Katowice. He is the author of photographic publications: “Cut it Short” (published by Kehrer Verlag, 2021, co-author: Michał Solarski) and “Odwrót” (published by Pix House, 2018). He has participated in numerous exhibitions and photography festivals both in Poland and abroad. His works have been presented at events such as Photomonth in Krakow, Hereford Photography Festival, New York Photo Festival, Athens Photo Festival, and Belfast Photo Festival. His works are included in collections, including that of the Silesian Museum.
Michał Solarski is a Polish photographer based in London. After finishing his studies in Poland he moved to the UK and studied at The London College of Communication, where he earned an additional Masters in Documentary Photography. He usually works on long-term projects that are strongly based on his own background, experiences and memories. His work occupies a grey space between documentary and fine art, reality and fiction. He is a winner and finalist of many internationally recognized awards and his work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions, and international festivals such as Festival Circulation(s), Photo IS:RAEL, Athens Photo Festival, Getxophoto Festival among many others.
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