Jan De Weryha

KUNSTHALLE WILHELMSHAVEN "Strenges Holz" (Jan de Weryha-Wysoczanski, Helga Weihs, Heiner Szamida) - 25.04 - 27.06 2004


In ihren bildhauerischen Werken setzen sich H. Weihs, H. Szamida und J. de Weryha-Wysoczanski mit dem Material Holz auf so eigenständige wie spannende Weise auseinander. Der organische Werkstoff wird dabei jeweils in eine ganz neue, strenge Ordnung gebracht, die dazu einlädt, über das Verhältnis von Natur und menschlicher Organisation, von Kultur und natürlicher Individualität nachzudenken. Die drei Künstler der Ausstellung entwickeln dabei in ihren Werken eigene Möglichkeiten, formende Kultur und gewachsene Natur nicht als Gegensatz zu verstehen, sondern als gemeinsame Grundlage kreativen Handelns.

(Dr. Daniel Spanke, Leiter der Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven)

Für die Ausstellung entstehen eigens angefertigte Werke. Es erscheint ein Katalogbuch.

Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven, Adalbertstr. 28, 26382 Wilhelmshaven

Öffnungszeiten

Di 11.00 bis 20.00 Uhr

Mi bis So 11.00 bis 17.00 Uhr

Montag geschlossen







„Wooden Objects“, eine Dauerausstellung von Jan de Weryha-Wysoczañski im Hamburger

Ausbesserungswerk: Februar 2004 bis Ende 2005. 80 Holzobjekte auf ca. 1000 m², Ausbesserungswerk Hamburg-Harburg, Schlachthofstrasse 3 (Besichtigung nach vorheriger telefonischer Vereinbarung, Tel.: 0172 405 32 38 oder 040 300 867 67)



Der Direktor des ZENTRUMS FÜR POLNISCHE SKULPTUR in Orońsko

GALERIE KAPLICA

- präsentiert ein Objekt von Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański

„Hölzerne Kubus” aus der Reihe „Kuben“

„Epiphanien der Natur in der Spätmodernen Welt“

Eröffnung: Samstag 16.10.2004, 14.00 Uhr, Ausstellung geöffnet bis 19.12.2004, Ausstellungskurator: Leszek Golec

Centrum Rzeźby Polskiej, Topolowa 1, Orońsko, www.rzezba-oronsko.pl

Dr. Jan Stanisław Wojciechowski, Kunskritiker und Kulturwissenschaftler; Ausschnitte aus dem Text: Epiphanien der Natur in der spätmodernen Welt Holzobjekte von Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański; Deutsche Übersetzung © Urszula Usakowska-Wolff

… Der Sinn der Objekte von Jan de Weryha erblicke ich in den der minimal art ganz konträren philosophischen Grundlagen. Die minimal art im Bündnis mit dem Konzeptualismus ist eine effektvolle Phase der Dematerialisierung und Denaturalisierung der Kunst. Die Objekte von Andre, Judd, Morris oder Serra sind bekanntlich eine räumliche Imagination von Sprach- und Denkfiguren. Der Akzent liegt dabei auf der Tautologie, also auf der Flucht vor allen Metaphern, Symbolen und „Offenbarungen“, auf den Bestrebungen, Grundlagen einer abstrakten Sprache zu erreichen und ihre begrifflichen Nullpunkte zu bestimmen. Minimalistische Objekte sind so konzipiert, dass sie nur so viel „sprechen“, wie man in der geometrischen, material und räumlich gleichgültigen Fläche oder im ..


"Holz - Archiv" - Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański Galeria Sztuki PATIO (Kunst Galerie PATIO) WSHE, Polen/Lódź ul. Sterlinga 26

Die Ausstellung entsteht in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Zentrum für Polnische

Skulptur in Orońsko. Ausstellungskurator: Henryk Gac

Ausstellungseröffnung 7. Januar um 19:00 Uhr

Ausstellungsdauer: 7. Januar bis 6. Februar 2005

Zur Ausstellung erscheint ein Katalog mit dem Text von Urszula Usakowska-Wolff

unter dem Titel: "Archiv der zeitlosen Zeit". Katalog wird zweisprachich

(polnisch und englisch)

www.galeriapatio.wshe.lodz.plUrszula Usakowska-Wolff, art critic, quotation from the text: “Archives of timeless time finiteness”, Łódź, 2005.

... The art created by this universal artist is an art of contrasts. It is minimalistic, which means both uniform and unindividualized in its form, but it characterizes with widely varied, individual surfaces. It is a continuation and enrichment of minimal art, it is related to it by its masterful use and control of space. The objects of Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański hold a conversation with the space, they are extension of the space, as they refer to signs, characteristic for the interior where they have been placed or hung. Some are covered with a delicate net which resembles outline of bricks on white painted wall. His mural works, entitled “Drewniane Tablice” (Wooden Boards), look from the distance like swaying cloths, in close perspective as libraries of wood called xyloteques, which were created at the end of the 18th century. They are more and more architectonical...


OFFENBARUNGEN IN HOLZ – OROŃSKO 2006 JAN de WERYHA-WYSOCZAŃSKI

Orońsko (PL), 21. 01. 2006

Das Museum für Zeitgenössische Skulptur sowie das Zentrum für Polnische Skulptur in Orońsko


JAN de WERYHA-WYSOCZAŃSKI (*1950 in Gdansk/PL) formuliert sein künstlerisches Vorgehen so:

"Meine künstlerischen Überlegungen konzentrieren sich auf der Erforschung des Materials Holz, auf dem Begreifen seiner Struktur und seines Kernes. Die Fragestellung, inwiefern darf man mit dem Eingriff das Material beeinflussen, so dass es seine Identität nicht verliert, begleitete mich und wird mich weiterhin begleiten."


Unter dem Titel "Offenbarungen in Holz" eröffnet Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański die diesjährige Ausstellungssaison in Orońsko, wo er seine neuesten Werke im Museum für Zeitgenössische Skulptur im Zentrum für Polnische Skulptur zeigt. Die Ausstellung ist seine bisher umfangreichste Einzelpräsentation in Polen und spiegelt seine Entwicklung in den letzten zehn Jahren wider.

Es ist ein Katalog mit einem Gespräch zwischen Mariusz Knorowski und Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański erschienen.


GAZETA WYBORCZA RADOM, 20. Januar 2006, Renata Metzger, Textauszüge aus: Hölzerne Welt. Die Ausstellung "Offenbarungen in Holz" von Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański wird am Samstag im Zentrum für Polnischer Skulptur in Oronsko eröffnet.

Die Ausstellung "Offenbarungen in Holz" eröffnet die diesjährige Ausstellungssaison in Orońsko. Weryha-Wysoczański ist einer der interessantesten in Holz arbeitenden Gegenwartskünstler. Aus den zugeschnittenen, vorher entsprechend geformten Fragmenten baut Wysoczański größere sehr unterschiedliche Konstruktionen. In seinen Händen verändert sich Holz - je nach Bedarf des Werkkonzeptes - entweder in einen Stoff, der Kraft, Härte ausstrahlt, oder mit seiner Leichtigkeit verzaubert. [...]


Mariusz Knorowski, Künstlerischer Direktor des Zentrums für Polnischer Skulptur in Orońsko, Ausschnitt aus dem Text zum Ausstellungskatalog: Offenbarungen in Holz - Orońsko 2006

[...] Immer öfter haben wir die Möglichkeit, mit deiner Kunst nach vielen Jahren ihrer Abwesenheit in Polen in Kontakt zu treten. Erinnern wir: Den Anfang bildete 2004 eine bescheidene Präsentation deines Objekts Kleiner Kubus in der Galerie Kapelle in Oronsko. Ihr folgten 2005 die Ausstellungen Holz - Archiv in der Galerie Patio an der Hochschule für Humanistik und Wirtschaft WSHE in Lódz sowie die monumentale Schau Epiphanien der Natur in der spätmodernen Welt in der Galerie Szyb Wilson (Schacht Wilson) in Kattowitz. Gegenwärtig wird deine Retrospektive im Museum für Zeitgenössische Skulptur im Internationalen Skulpturenzentrum in Oronsko gezeigt. In der Zwischenzeit gab es gute Rezensionen deiner Kunst und ein beachtliches Medienecho: Du wurdest in Erinnerung gebracht, konntest dich mit der Kunstwelt und einem neuen Publikum in Polen treffen. Vielleicht ist es also kein Zufall, dass sich rund um deine Person eine besonders günstige Aura entwickelt hat, die Interesse weckt - ein nicht allzu häufiges Phänomen als Reaktion auf die aktuelle Kunst. [...]



Die Ausstellung dauert bis zum 2. April 2006.

Öffnungszeiten:

01 IV - 31 X

Di bis Fr: 10.00 bis 16.00 Uhr

weekend 10.00 - 18.00 Uhr

01 XI - 31 III

Di bis Fr: 7.00 bis 15.00 Uhr

7.00 - 15.00

weekend 8.00 - 16.00 Uhr


Info:


kunst/veranstaltung/jan_de_weryha_wysoczanski_oronsko_2006.php


Ort: Stadtgalerie Danzig 1 (Gdańska Galeria Miejska 1),

ul. Piwna 27/29, PL-80-831 Gdańsk, Tel. +48(0)58 682 00 93, www.ggm.gda.pl

Künstler: Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański

Ausstellungstitel: TABULARIUM

Kuratorin: Grażyna Tomaszewska-Sobko

Ausstellungsdauer: 21. August – 25. September 2009, Öffnungszeiten:

Im August: Di – Do u. So 11 -17 Uhr, Fr u. Sa 11 -20 Uhr, im September: Di – So 11 – 17 Uhr

Vernissage: Freitag, 21. August 2009, 19 Uhr

Finissage: Freitag, 25. September 2009, 19 Uhr


Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański wurde 1950 in Gdańsk geboren, wo er 1976 sein Bildhauerstudium an der Staatlichen Hochschule für Bildenden Künste abschloss.

Seit 1981 wohnt und arbeitet er in Hamburg. Die Ausstellung in der neu eröffneten Danziger Stadtgalerie wird seine erste Präsentation in seiner Geburtstadt nach seiner Ausreise aus Polen sein. Die Ausstellung zeigt einen Ausschnitt seiner großformatigen Objekte, in denen der Hauptakteur das Holz ist. Das Material Holz, wie der Künstler selbst sagt, hat er nicht ohne Grund ausgewählt. Es ist ein Produkt der Natur, das gewissermaßen nach seinem physischen Tod in ein neues Leben eintritt. Zum Leben „erweckt“ de Weryha-Wysoczański es auf eine besondere Art und Weise. Er bearbeitet, teilt und ordnet es mit der größten Aufmerksamkeit und Sorgfalt, um die Struktur und den Materialcharakter beizubehalten. Er verzichtet in seinen Arbeiten auf jede Art von Narration und konzentriert sich nur auf das Wesen des Holzes. Weitere Informationen zu dem Künstler finden sich auf seiner Internetseite:

Vertreter der Konkreten Kunst. Material ist Holz.

KUNSTHALLE WILHELMSHAVEN "Strenges Holz" (Jan de Weryha-Wysoczanski, Helga Weihs, Heiner Szamida) - 25.04 - 27.06 2004


In ihren bildhauerischen Werken setzen sich H. Weihs, H. Szamida und J. de Weryha-Wysoczanski mit dem Material Holz auf so eigenständige wie spannende Weise auseinander. Der organische Werkstoff wird dabei jeweils in eine ganz neue, strenge Ordnung gebracht, die dazu einlädt, über das Verhältnis von Natur und menschlicher Organisation, von Kultur und natürlicher Individualität nachzudenken. Die drei Künstler der Ausstellung entwickeln dabei in ihren Werken eigene Möglichkeiten, formende Kultur und gewachsene Natur nicht als Gegensatz zu verstehen, sondern als gemeinsame Grundlage kreativen Handelns.

(Dr. Daniel Spanke, Leiter der Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven)

Für die Ausstellung entstehen eigens angefertigte Werke. Es erscheint ein Katalogbuch.

Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven, Adalbertstr. 28, 26382 Wilhelmshaven

Öffnungszeiten

Di 11.00 bis 20.00 Uhr

Mi bis So 11.00 bis 17.00 Uhr

Montag geschlossen







„Wooden Objects“, eine Dauerausstellung von Jan de Weryha-Wysoczañski im Hamburger

Ausbesserungswerk: Februar 2004 bis Ende 2005. 80 Holzobjekte auf ca. 1000 m², Ausbesserungswerk Hamburg-Harburg, Schlachthofstrasse 3 (Besichtigung nach vorheriger telefonischer Vereinbarung, Tel.: 0172 405 32 38 oder 040 300 867 67)



Der Direktor des ZENTRUMS FÜR POLNISCHE SKULPTUR in Orońsko

GALERIE KAPLICA

- präsentiert ein Objekt von Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański

„Hölzerne Kubus” aus der Reihe „Kuben“

„Epiphanien der Natur in der Spätmodernen Welt“

Eröffnung: Samstag 16.10.2004, 14.00 Uhr, Ausstellung geöffnet bis 19.12.2004, Ausstellungskurator: Leszek Golec

Centrum Rzeźby Polskiej, Topolowa 1, Orońsko, www.rzezba-oronsko.pl

Dr. Jan Stanisław Wojciechowski, Kunskritiker und Kulturwissenschaftler; Ausschnitte aus dem Text: Epiphanien der Natur in der spätmodernen Welt Holzobjekte von Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański; Deutsche Übersetzung © Urszula Usakowska-Wolff

… Der Sinn der Objekte von Jan de Weryha erblicke ich in den der minimal art ganz konträren philosophischen Grundlagen. Die minimal art im Bündnis mit dem Konzeptualismus ist eine effektvolle Phase der Dematerialisierung und Denaturalisierung der Kunst. Die Objekte von Andre, Judd, Morris oder Serra sind bekanntlich eine räumliche Imagination von Sprach- und Denkfiguren. Der Akzent liegt dabei auf der Tautologie, also auf der Flucht vor allen Metaphern, Symbolen und „Offenbarungen“, auf den Bestrebungen, Grundlagen einer abstrakten Sprache zu erreichen und ihre begrifflichen Nullpunkte zu bestimmen. Minimalistische Objekte sind so konzipiert, dass sie nur so viel „sprechen“, wie man in der geometrischen, material und räumlich gleichgültigen Fläche oder im ..


"Holz - Archiv" - Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański Galeria Sztuki PATIO (Kunst Galerie PATIO) WSHE, Polen/Lódź ul. Sterlinga 26

Die Ausstellung entsteht in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Zentrum für Polnische

Skulptur in Orońsko. Ausstellungskurator: Henryk Gac

Ausstellungseröffnung 7. Januar um 19:00 Uhr

Ausstellungsdauer: 7. Januar bis 6. Februar 2005

Zur Ausstellung erscheint ein Katalog mit dem Text von Urszula Usakowska-Wolff

unter dem Titel: "Archiv der zeitlosen Zeit". Katalog wird zweisprachich

(polnisch und englisch)

www.galeriapatio.wshe.lodz.plUrszula Usakowska-Wolff, art critic, quotation from the text: “Archives of timeless time finiteness”, Łódź, 2005.

... The art created by this universal artist is an art of contrasts. It is minimalistic, which means both uniform and unindividualized in its form, but it characterizes with widely varied, individual surfaces. It is a continuation and enrichment of minimal art, it is related to it by its masterful use and control of space. The objects of Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański hold a conversation with the space, they are extension of the space, as they refer to signs, characteristic for the interior where they have been placed or hung. Some are covered with a delicate net which resembles outline of bricks on white painted wall. His mural works, entitled “Drewniane Tablice” (Wooden Boards), look from the distance like swaying cloths, in close perspective as libraries of wood called xyloteques, which were created at the end of the 18th century. They are more and more architectonical...


OFFENBARUNGEN IN HOLZ – OROŃSKO 2006 JAN de WERYHA-WYSOCZAŃSKI

Orońsko (PL), 21. 01. 2006

Das Museum für Zeitgenössische Skulptur sowie das Zentrum für Polnische Skulptur in Orońsko


JAN de WERYHA-WYSOCZAŃSKI (*1950 in Gdansk/PL) formuliert sein künstlerisches Vorgehen so:

"Meine künstlerischen Überlegungen konzentrieren sich auf der Erforschung des Materials Holz, auf dem Begreifen seiner Struktur und seines Kernes. Die Fragestellung, inwiefern darf man mit dem Eingriff das Material beeinflussen, so dass es seine Identität nicht verliert, begleitete mich und wird mich weiterhin begleiten."


Unter dem Titel "Offenbarungen in Holz" eröffnet Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański die diesjährige Ausstellungssaison in Orońsko, wo er seine neuesten Werke im Museum für Zeitgenössische Skulptur im Zentrum für Polnische Skulptur zeigt. Die Ausstellung ist seine bisher umfangreichste Einzelpräsentation in Polen und spiegelt seine Entwicklung in den letzten zehn Jahren wider.

Es ist ein Katalog mit einem Gespräch zwischen Mariusz Knorowski und Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański erschienen.


GAZETA WYBORCZA RADOM, 20. Januar 2006, Renata Metzger, Textauszüge aus: Hölzerne Welt. Die Ausstellung "Offenbarungen in Holz" von Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański wird am Samstag im Zentrum für Polnischer Skulptur in Oronsko eröffnet.

Die Ausstellung "Offenbarungen in Holz" eröffnet die diesjährige Ausstellungssaison in Orońsko. Weryha-Wysoczański ist einer der interessantesten in Holz arbeitenden Gegenwartskünstler. Aus den zugeschnittenen, vorher entsprechend geformten Fragmenten baut Wysoczański größere sehr unterschiedliche Konstruktionen. In seinen Händen verändert sich Holz - je nach Bedarf des Werkkonzeptes - entweder in einen Stoff, der Kraft, Härte ausstrahlt, oder mit seiner Leichtigkeit verzaubert. [...]


Mariusz Knorowski, Künstlerischer Direktor des Zentrums für Polnischer Skulptur in Orońsko, Ausschnitt aus dem Text zum Ausstellungskatalog: Offenbarungen in Holz - Orońsko 2006

[...] Immer öfter haben wir die Möglichkeit, mit deiner Kunst nach vielen Jahren ihrer Abwesenheit in Polen in Kontakt zu treten. Erinnern wir: Den Anfang bildete 2004 eine bescheidene Präsentation deines Objekts Kleiner Kubus in der Galerie Kapelle in Oronsko. Ihr folgten 2005 die Ausstellungen Holz - Archiv in der Galerie Patio an der Hochschule für Humanistik und Wirtschaft WSHE in Lódz sowie die monumentale Schau Epiphanien der Natur in der spätmodernen Welt in der Galerie Szyb Wilson (Schacht Wilson) in Kattowitz. Gegenwärtig wird deine Retrospektive im Museum für Zeitgenössische Skulptur im Internationalen Skulpturenzentrum in Oronsko gezeigt. In der Zwischenzeit gab es gute Rezensionen deiner Kunst und ein beachtliches Medienecho: Du wurdest in Erinnerung gebracht, konntest dich mit der Kunstwelt und einem neuen Publikum in Polen treffen. Vielleicht ist es also kein Zufall, dass sich rund um deine Person eine besonders günstige Aura entwickelt hat, die Interesse weckt - ein nicht allzu häufiges Phänomen als Reaktion auf die aktuelle Kunst. [...]



Die Ausstellung dauert bis zum 2. April 2006.

Öffnungszeiten:

01 IV - 31 X

Di bis Fr: 10.00 bis 16.00 Uhr

weekend 10.00 - 18.00 Uhr

01 XI - 31 III

Di bis Fr: 7.00 bis 15.00 Uhr

7.00 - 15.00

weekend 8.00 - 16.00 Uhr


Info:


kunst/veranstaltung/jan_de_weryha_wysoczanski_oronsko_2006.php

Mariusz Knorowski


Revelations in wood

Mariusz Knorowski: More and more often we have the chance to see your art after many years of your absence from the country; let's remind: the introduction was an inconspicuous presentation of one object at the Chapel Gallery in Orońsko in 2004, followed by the exhibition Wood Archives at the Patio Gallery WSHE in Łódź, a monumental exhibition Epiphanies of Nature in the Late-Modern World at the Wilson Shaft Gallery in Katowice last year and now at the Museum of Contemporary Sculpture at the Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko, and in the meantime good reviews, resonance in the media, remembering about yourself and meetings with the new artistic environment and a new group of viewers.
Such a sequence is very significant and it cannot be a matter of incident that there has appeared around you a special, favourable aura which is evoking interest - it is a rather unusual phenomenon in response to contemporary art.
Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański: It is true that the resonance in the media, as all the previous exhibition reviews have been glowing. I think it is due to the fact that the material I'm working with is so well familiar to everybody, and it evokes only 'warm' associations at the first contact.
MK: Until recently your creative productions were known more extensively in Germany. You had a series of exhibitions in respected institutions. I know that to a large extent the character of your works has been shaped by seemingly secondary circumstances, such as the scale of your studio, the climate of a post-industrial interior. But I am really interested in the choice of material - substance; although I know that you do not limit yourself to wood alone, to mention at least the monument made of granite so highly evaluated by Andrzej Szczypiorski, commemorating Poles deported after the fall of the Warsaw Uprising to Neuengamme.
So why wood? A natural substance, incorporating properties of both physical and metaphysical nature, tangible and purely practical, inspiring and symbolical. You are working with wood in the age of multimedia!
JWW: I have chosen wood to work with for very good reasons. It is a product of nature which after its physical death seems to come back to another life. It has a scent, it swells, dries. The power of this material has caused that it catpured me and made me stay with it despite, one may think now, more 'up to date' mulimedia technologies.
MK: I know that a violin maker who must predict the acoustic values of the instrument sound, recognizes the acoustic properties of different species of wood, and composes them skillfully - such non-verbalised knowledge, or a kind of imagination which testifies to his mastery. Do you search, match, compose your works basing on a similar rule? Do you receive any impulses flowing to you from a certain species of wood, its properties, features or hidden meanings?
JWW: The work with this material relies primarily on respect for it. You mustn't hurt wood. The tools for its processing must be used only in such a way that the trace they leave should not accidentlally interfere in the structure and character of wood. This material allows to do a lot with itself. Yet you must obey certain rules. Any interference is allowed only to such a degree that it does not affect the character, that its intensity does not lose its power. The restrictions I put on myself include among others a conscious resignation from any elements of 'narrating means'. I concentrate exclusively on the essence of the material. After some time of working with this natural substance there appears as if a certain level from which wood send its impulses to which and I try to respond.
MK: The 20th century art did not penetrate the nooks and crannies of nature in search of picturesque facts and phenomena. It focused attention on revealing morphology of natural processes, the miracle that happens under the surface of things. Instead of the notion of mimesis and the inseparable illusion of 3D space, there appeared a notion of Raumausstrahlung (radiation of space, its disappearance). Professor Ewa Chojecka described the situation in the following way, Art has transformed from a storyteller to a manifestation of expressive form contents: symmetry, congestion, dilution, vibration, motion and motionlessness,crystality or doughiness , shining and roughness, phenomena of the surface treatment and spatial modelling, synesthesia of visual, auditory and tactile sensations. Nature appears as a source of endless experiences of forms, colours, expressions, tensions, rationality and randomness, conscious and subconscious order, dichotomic arrangements. Do you agree with this diagnosis, because it seems to relate to your art as well?
JWW: I do. I agree with it, many of the presented aspects match my own reflections.
MK: Your works affect us primarily with the structure. One often notices the geometrical division, a kind of regular composition scheme, especially in the series Wooden Tables. Sometimes they are solids as ideal as the Cube which we had a chance to see in both forms: compact and extended one. It shows the acceptability of two variations - even for the status of the work which changes its form. But I actually mean another problem: geometry - an intellectual invention - is a contradiction to natural order, whose character is more organic, spontaneous, impulsive, often conventionally random than rational, structured. How do you reconcile the two antagonistic orders?
JWW: It's true, in my works the structure becomes one of the major aspects. Often the whole elements are as if modules, which I use interchangeably in subsequent presentations, e.g. the Cube in the Chapel Gallery was presented as a compact, in Patio Gallery it was an extended form unfolded on the floor, and now in the Sculpture Museum it is hung on the wall as a huge wooden board. When it comes to reconciliation of geometry with nature, the former enables me to create and organise certain frames for the natural order, which I then try to introduce. This externally derived 'natural order' gets inscribed into the prepared beforehand 'geometry' of the interior. It is during such transformation that new values are born - of new spontaneous forms, often as if overfilled with controlled chaos.
MK: I have noticed that some of your exhibitions are 'spreading', they are happening in the existing space, they are creeping into crevices, openings, bays etc. They make an impression of natural excrescences, very expansively overgrowing the civilisation products. There happens a strange symbiosis. Is it a kind of intervention, or rather a counterpoint provoking to reflections? In your case does ecological awareness project on your artistic work?
JWW: This 'spreading' results from my comprehension and understanding of the essence of building space. Each space is always different, full of conditions resulting from the architecture itself, and on the other hand dependant on the character of the presented works. So each time we face a completely new situation. Finding optimal relations and ideal balance between these two components is, in my opinion, the key to creating an effective exhibition. It is almost always a kind of attempt to interfere in the architecture of existing space. You're asking about ecological awareness; of course it does influence my activity. Maybe my artistic productions, even to a very limited degree, will succeed in drawing more attention to ecology issues with the people who see my works. Maybe they'll notice how important role in the closed complex of ecological clock plays the tree, without which all humans would be doomed to extinction.
MK: Particular fragments of your exhibition make an impression of a ritualistic treatment. I mean marked out circles. figures, continuums. Sometimes one notices a clear boundary - and it raises questions: is it an intentional division of space, or do we enter a sphere of sacrum? So is it an activity aimed at sacralising space, or only formal aesthetics?
JWW: I only aimed at intended division of space, so you may call it formal aesthetics, but I leave the viewer complete freedom in his perception, even when I think he enters the sacrum sphere.
MK: It was a little provocative on my side to have asked you about the mystery expression of your activities and its accompannying concentration. When I'm gazing at your works, my first association concerns the laboriouness of their production, precision, cohesion and simultaneously a noticeable consistence in the sequence of elements, a certain correctness indicating a well-taught hand movement. This, naturally, brings to mind writing. Is it a special case of ideographic record representing notions, larger units of sense? Is it a kind of hieroglyphic text of nature?
JWW: Well, it seems to me that in that case, the traces of my activity could be in a way compared to a kind of hieroglyphic text of nature.
MK: I would go further in this continuum of associations: contents, script, revealed truth. Epiphanies in your works have already been mentioned and it sounds very convincing. It might be a gift of revealing truths hidden before the profanum. Can your whole artistic production be considered a kind of book, a chapter of a huge book of nature, or is it a modest booklet of man on man who constitutes its tiny little piece, 'a thinking reed' and with humility seeks a place for himself in nature, in harmony with it?
JWW: I'll answer like that. In the last years I made very many works and if one could look at them all at the same time, you might notice in this multitude of various structures, as if a germ of an attempt to visualise a certain table of wood morphology, or wood archives. I think that in the future I will continue to reveal these hidden truths of nature.
MK: As you know the proverbial 'benedictine patience' has contributed to sustaining the continuity of our culture and conservation of the heritage of antiquity. Arduous activity, yet useful. The laboriousness of the monks who were anonymously rewriting books in sciptoriums is well known. And they even tried to embellish the books with illuminations, a kind of artistic commentary. Are you writing a text, arduously and with a deep faith in its significance? Is there a message in it, because I understand that with your art you not only immortalise the fact of your existence.
JWW: I think that it is a kind of independent, rather vague force that continuously drives me in this constant pursuit and 'completion' of new files of my 'archives'. Undoubtedly, it all means arduous work which is carried out with a conviction of its importance, because somehow I do not find any reasons that would make me stop it.
MK: Does your experience and belief make you see any difference between Kunst and Gestatlung? I'm asking because Paul Klee supported the latter notion which emphasizes the creative sense of artistic practice.
JWW: I think that neither of these ideas, Kunst and Gestatlung, can do without creativity in some sense; for example painting a picture or making a sculpture requires a limited creativity, such that is limited to the creative process itself. You can easily place them in the most diverse interiors without any risk of changing their character, and thus for example a work of sacral character can easily 'exist' in 'lay architecture'. The matter looks completely different when an object/installation is created for a concrete architectural interior.Then we have to do with creative artistic practice, that is Gestaltung according to Paul Klee, whose example you mention. The process of creation in that case goes simultaneously and inseparably both within the object and in the space surrounding it. I guess this is the main difference between the two mentioned terms.
MK: Tell us about technologies you are using, because as far as I know, in your work there is a special respect for the material, not only religious attention. Isn't the process of working in fact a kind of a coded objective, just like the notion of route does not necessarily include the real point of destination and it is the movement itself that matters?
JWW: With a great respect for the material in my works, I am limiting the technologies of its processing to a minumum. I allow only the indispensable traces of tool intervention on the surface of wood. Only as much as is really necessary. Indeed in my work the fact of reaching a previously set real goal is not important, what matters is the fact of perseverance in continuous pursuits.
MK: Such an attitude of an artist as a wanderer (homo viator) has a romantic heritage. Your work seems to have romantic connotations as well. In that epoch, artistic attitudes were touched with extreme subjectivity, and nature was often used as a medium to express artistic credo. Is your Creed in art- to use such organic comparison - rooted in the your work itself or does it lie outside it? We, the viewers, are ready to contemplate the works.
JWW: I would be willing to place my creed in art in the works themselves. You're saying that as a viewer you 're ready to contemplate my works - I must confess that I do it very often myself. During this ritual I recover a balance of mind and a full tranquility. Wood apparently possesses some very special features, to which we, people, react positively. When it is arranged in appropriate rhythms, there seems to appear a full harmony of structure connected with the delicate gamut of colours and smells. What I find very interesting is the first contact with the architecture in which I intend to place my works. It always gives rise to a kind of contemplation which in the process of growing finally leads to very concrete decisions about the situation of appropriate rhythms, orders and wooden structures. This story repeats with every 'new' meeting with a new space; it is a sort of journey on which I always take all my luggage of hitherto experiences and adventures I had encountered during my long-standing process of discovring this wonderful material given to us by nature - wood. I think that this natural substance hides in itself so many mysteries that my whole life will not suffice to acquaint and understand them.
MK: Do you find any similarity between your works and the so called Konkrete Plastik? I would like to refer to the works of Ulrich Rückriem (we had a chance to meet his works here in our Museum). Max Imdahls once tried to define it in comparison with works by Theo van Doesburg, Serra, Rabinowitch, It is very important for the definition of fine art category, that it conveys the three dimensionality of the object that is shows and possesses (...) According to the definition of its own category, it becomes art which is in a special way ascribed to the so called concrete art. Such art does not present anything else that is constitutes itself.
JWW: It is a litle awkward to define one's own art, but answering the question, yes! Ulrich Rückriem is one of my favourite sculptors, whose works have been fascinating me for years. One of his major artistic actions in the material such as stone is an act of splitting. This act belongs to the most important ones in my work too, with the difference though that I do it in wood.
MK: Finally, a simple question - with a request for a sincere answer - what mystery does your art hide?
JWW: It would be simplest to say that my point in this case is to make very frank attempts to define the mysteries of nature.
.............................................................................................................................................................................................

Renata Metzger

Hölzerne Welt. Die Ausstellung „Offenbarungen in Holz“ von Jan de
Weryha-Wysoczański wird am Samstag im Zentrum für Polnischer Skulptur in
Orońsko eröffnet.

Die Ausstellung „Offenbarungen in Holz“ eröffnet die diesjährige Ausstellungssaison in Orońsko. Weryha-Wysoczański ist einer der interessantesten in Holz arbeitenden Gegenwartskünstler. Aus den zugeschnittenen, vorher entsprechend geformten Fragmenten baut Wysoczański größere sehr unterschiedliche Konstruktionen. In seinen Händen verändert sich Holz – je nach Bedarf des Werkkonzeptes – entweder in einen Stoff, der Kraft, Härte ausstrahlt, oder mit seiner Leichtigkeit verzaubert.
„Meine künstlerischen Überlegungen in den letzten Jahren konzentrieren sich auf die Erforschung des Materials Holz, auf das Begreifen seiner Struktur und seines Kerns, was zum denkbar höchsten Zustand führt, welcher auf der Zelebrierung des Archaischen im Holz beruht“. – stellt Wysoczański fest. – „Ich fange intuitiv mit folgender Fragestellung an:
Inwiefern darf man mit dem Eingriff das Material beeinflussen, so dass es seine Identität nicht verliert. In der Praxis funktioniert dies durch die Einführung strenger Regeln. Es entstehen dann bestimmte Rhythmen, auf der anderen Seite aber - eine gewisse Monotonie“ – gibt der Künstler zu. Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański wurde 1950 in Danzig geboren. Er studierte an der dortigen Kunstakademie. Seit 1981 wohnt und arbeitet er in Hamburg. Er ist ein sowohl in Polen als auch in Deutschland bekannter und geachteter Künstler. So entwarf er u. a. das von deutscher Seite in Auftrag gegebene Denkmal in Erinnerung an die Deportierten des
Warschauer Aufstandes für die KZ-Gedenkstätte Neuengamme. Ebenso oft werden seine Arbeiten bei uns gezeigt wie hinter (auf der anderen Seite) der Oder.
In diesem Jahr werden wir im Museum für Skulptur, dem größten Objekt in Orońsko, noch u. a. die Ausstellung „Regionen der Skulptur“ sehen, die das Breslauer Milieu der Kunstakademie seit 1946 bis heute präsentiert. Man hat auch eine Jubiläumsausstellung von Mieczysław Wasilewski geplant in Zusammenhang mit seinem 50-jährigen Schaffensjubiläum sowie von Jarosław Kozakiewicz „Innenarchitektur“. In der Kammergalerie wird am Herbstanfang traditionsgemäß auch nicht die Exposition der
"Geometristen" fehlen. Und in der „Orangerie“ werden wir z.B. die Arbeiten von Philipp Brodzki und Rafał Rychter bestaunen können.

Eröffnung der Ausstellung „Offenbarungen im Holz“ im Museum für
Polnische Skulptur ist am 21. Januar um 14:00 Uhr.

Meine künstlerischen Überlegungen in den letzten Jahren konzentrieren sich auf der Erforschung des Materials Holz, auf dem Begreifen seiner Struktur und seines Kernes, was zum denkbar höchsten Zustand führt, welcher auf der Zelebrierung des Archaischen im Holz beruht. Alles fängt hier mit der Frage an, welche technischen Materialbearbeitungsmittel stehen dem Künstler zur Disposition und in welchem Ausmaß. Nach einer durchgeführten Analyse stellt sich heraus, in welcher Weise die benutzten Werkzeuge Spuren in den Holzstrukturen hinterlassen. Das Material verändert sich in einem bestimmten Sinne auf Grund einer Intervention von außen. Eine andere Version dieses Szenarios ist hier nicht möglich.

Ich fange intuitiv mit folgender Fragestellung an: Inwiefern darf man mit dem Eingriff das Material beeinflussen, so dass es seine Identität nicht verliert. In der Praxis funktioniert dies durch die Einführung von strengen Regeln, die der Künstler in seiner empirischen Auseinandersetzung mit der Natur aushandeln muss. Es entstehen dann bestimmte Rhythmen, aber auch eine gewisse Monotonie.

Diese beiden Erscheinungen thematisiere ich in einer anhaltenden Hervorhebung, welche mit einer pulsierenden Balance überrascht. Parallel dazu führe ich eine bestimmte Geometrie ein, voll von sachlichen Ausdrucksweisen, die mich bei der Minimal Art beeindrucken. Auf der anderen Seite interessiert mich das individuelle unwiederholbare Geflecht von künstlich geschaffenen, aber natürlich wirkenden Holzoberflächen, die kaum erkennbare Spuren der Werkzeugintervention bemerken lassen. Dieses ständige Geben und Nehmen zwischen der Natur und dem Künstler wird zu einem höchst sublimen und durchdachten Austauschprozess, der zur Grundlage meiner Handlungen wird, und die mir immer wieder auf überraschende Weise ganz neue Lösungsmöglichkeiten eröffnen.

Im ersten Moment wirkt die geschaffene, vollkommen funktionierende Harmonie scheinbar monoton. In dem Augenblick erst, wo plötzlich die warmen Farben von Waldhonig bis zu sanft verkohltem Holz, die Verschiedenheit des Materials von der Rinde bis zu den vielfältigen Holzarten, die sichtbaren Arbeitsspuren der eingesetzten Werkzeuge und die entstehenden Lichtreflexe hervortreten, verändert sich die Situation radikal in eine leidenschaftlich lebende und vibrierende fabelhafte Erzählung. Manche bis zu zehn Quadratmeter großen hölzernen Tafeln sind riesig, reliefähnlich, archaisch atmend und monumental wirkend und zeugen von Kraft und Erhabenheit. Jene neuen Wandarbeiten fallen vor allem durch eine stark entwickelte architektonische Ordnung und durch kraftvoll geladene Holzstrukturen auf, die in konkreten Rhythmen geschlossen sind. Diese sonderbare Konstellation, die unerwartete Ausdruckformen auftut, erlaubt mir aufs neue, Holz als Material zu definieren.

Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański

art & BUSINESS 7-8/2005, Monika Branicka, Kunstkritikerin.

Die Seele des Holzes

De Weryha-Wysoczański schloß sein Studium an der Staatlichen Hochschule für Bildende Künste Danzig 1976 ab, später ging er nach Hamburg. Nach fast einem Vierteljahrhundert zeigt er eine außergewöhnliche Ausstellung in der Galerie Szyb Wilson in Kattowitz.

Schon eine allgemeine Betrachtung des Zustandes der polnischen Gegenwartsskulptur betrübt. Wer nicht dem Epigonentum, dem Imponiergehabe oder der Manier verfallen will –flüchtet sich in neue Medien. Traditionelle Materialien wie Bronze, Gips oder Holz haben sich schon erschöpft und sind einer Entwertung anheim gefallen. Holz ist da doppelt belastet. Es hat seine natürlichen Grenzen und eine unrühmliche volksrepublikanische Vergangenheit der Ästhetik und volkstümlicher Assoziationen. Es wird ungern benutzt und wenn, dann als Material für studentische Übungen.
Weryha verwendet Holz gemäß seiner Eigenschaften. Er zerlegt es in Scheite, Schalen, Scheiben. Aus hunderten oder tausenden von Elementen baut er Hügel, Wege, Kreise. Aus Scheiben formt er eine Säule, aus Zweigen legt er ein Dreieck. Aus Rindenfragmenten legt er
einen Kegel, schüttet einen Hügel auf, baut einen neuen Baum. Er schafft Figuren, die in der Natur nicht auftreten (hölzerner Kubus), doch vergewaltigt er nicht ihre Grundsätze und natürliche Ordnung. Er will die Holzstruktur begreifen; ihn interessiert die Möglichkeit des Eingriffs in das Holz in einem solchen Maße, so dass es seine Identität nicht verliert. Dies ist wahrscheinlich die einzige reine geometrische Abstraktion, über die man nicht sagen kann, sie sei kalt. Minimalismus mit Seele eben.
Seit einigen Jahren arbeitet Wysoczański im ehemaligen hamburgischen Eisenbahn- Ausbesserungswerk, wo er eine Galerie schuf. Die Exposition im stillgelegten Bergschacht ist auch eine Ausstellung im „site-specific“ Stil. Die Arbeiten sind mit Sorgfalt in den Bereich eines jeden Raumes integriert. Die Mehrzahl hat keinen Titel, wie die, wo in einem kleinen Raum ein Wald von Holzscheiten steht (!). Die Zufälligkeit ist hier völlig scheinbar. Die Erfassung des Chaos von hunderten von Elementen erforderte benediktinische Geduld und Demut gegenüber dem Material. Eine der schönsten und ergreifendsten Skulpturen-Ausstellungen der letzten Zeit.

Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański, Epiphanien der Natur in der Spätmodernen Welt, Galerie Szyb Wilson, Kattowitz, bis 30.12.2005.

GAZETA WYBORCZA, KATOWICE, March 22th, 2005, Łukasz Kałębasiak. Translation from Polish to English bei Maria Apanowicz. Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański's sculptures at an exhibition in Katowice
Cathedral Full of Wood.

'My sculptues are a monument erected to trees', says Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański who has just turned the old mine workshop, i.e. the Wilson Shaft Gallery, from a temple of coal into a temple of wood.
It seemed that filling the huge space of the Wilson Shaft Gallery in Katowice by one artist (in an interesting way) would be impossible. But then Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański got invited and within two weeks he created at the Wilson a wonderful exhibition. Although there is nothing but raw wood.
'My sculptures are a monument erected to trees', says the artist and there is no better key to his works than this sentence. Because the artist concentrates on the material, not on symbolism.'Art does not have to have practical objectives. It must affect the viewer', that is his motto. And it obviously works at the Wilson. First, due to its scale, when the artist fills the entire niche of the old workshop with cut down poplar trunks. Then, due to his idea of forming bits of bark into a fanciful sculpture.
The whole artist's work can be reduced to giving wood a certain order. 'My exhibition in Łódź was titled 'Wood- Archive'. I realised that I really archivise wood', says the artist. What 'works' in Wysoczański's sculptures and sculpture installations is rhythm. The artist assembles bits of raw wood in simple combinations on the floor or frames them like pictures.The genius of his art consists in this absolute simplicity. He also interacts with the Wilson's space, using its all rooms. 'This gallery reminds me of a cathedral. The middle is the main nave, and the small rooms are side aisles' the sculptor compares. So Wysoczański transformed them into a cathedral of wood.
Ecological dimension of this art is only too obvious. Wysoczański uses only wood from trees marked out for cutting down or fallen by wind. He does not approve of dyeing either. If anything he scorches some of his works, which is a most natural process.
Wysoczański's art evokes extraordinarily good emotions. There is something primitive in our way of looking at wood and the artists makes good use of it. He also follows the best patterns- those created by nature. 'When I started, I was afraid that after a few works I would have exhaused all possibilities. Now I can see that my whole life will not suffice, because I am trying to reach the heart of nature secrets', smiles the artist.
Jan de Weryha Wysoczański's sculpture will remain at the Wilson Shaft Gallery until August. TheWilson Shaft exhibition is the third individual presentation of the artist in Poland. His 'tournee' started last year in Orońsko. Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański was born in Gdańsk, where he completed his artistic education. In 1981 he left for Germany and settled down in Hamburg. Together with a German artist he redecorated an industrial shop on the outskirts of the city, which became his studio for many years to come. He is the author of the monument commemorating the Poles deported after the Warsaw Uprising, which stands near Hamburg. In 2003 he opened in that city his permament gallery.

GAZETA WYBORCZA ŁÓDŹ, January 13th, 2005, Małgorzata Ludwisiak, NEW PLACE on the culture map of Łódź Quite clear art

The Patio Gallery has become richer in space for organizing exhibitions. The first exposition is at the same time a discovery of an artist almost unknown in Poland. "This is our third room on the premises of WSHE (Arts and Economy College)", says Aurelia Mandziuk, the director of Patio Gallery, "This one is near the library. It is worth showing the best art in a place devoted to education".
With a chisel and axe Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański is the artist inaugurating the activity of this gallery branch. He comes from Gdańsk, but has lived in Hamburg for 24 years. He has taken part in many exhibitions all over the world. His best known sculpture is a monument at the Museum - Memory Place for the concentration camp in Neuengamme near Hamburg, commemorating Poles deported from the Warsaw uprising. And yet, until now there has been no exhibition of his works in Poland. "He is a modest artist, without the self-marketing mechanism", explains Leszek Golec from the Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko, one of the exhibition organizers. "And people like his art, because it is quite clear". Weryha's Polish debut is a matter of chance. "We met last year at an exhibition in Schlezwig", says Henryk Gac from the Centre of Contemporary Art in Warsaw. "I decided to organise his exhibition immediately. We already have plans for the coming year".
Why the title 'Wood - Archive' ? "There are selected artist's works from his various periods. Some look like wooden library shelves. The way of his working is also very traditional: chisel and axe. And besides, wood is slowly becoming an archival material", Gac explains. Following ants' example. The artist himself finds the pieces of wood for his sculptures in nature. "I would never think of cutting down a tree", he says. "I've been working with this material for seven years. This is a material to delight in, to open up and present". He looks for patterns for his sculptures in the works of nature: ant hills, bee nests or stacks of wood. He uses the rhythm known from architecture.
The new gallery under the common name of WSHE starts with a strong accent of good art and well known names of curators. Previously the Patio Gallery showed interesting 'Flags' of Tomasz Sikorski, and the plans include Edward Łazikowski's sculpture exhibition. The map of Łódź is gaining a new, ambitious place. Aurelia Mandziuk says "I'm trying to reach the best patterns".
Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański is showing his sculptures at the exhibition "Wood-Archive" in the new space of Patio Gallery working at the Arts and Economy College at 26 Sterling Street. The exhibition prepared together with the Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko will be open until February 15th.

Jan Stanisław Wojciechowski, PhD, art critic, FORMAT Art Magazine, 2005
Epiphanies of nature in the late-modern world.

Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański's wooden cube has been exhibited in the Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko, in the old manor chapel. This fact has its artistic energy emanating straight from the interesting juxtapposition of a geometric solid of substantial size and the fascinating surface, created by the 'live' arrangement of wood and the interior of sacral character, belonging to the manorial complex situated in Orońsko park. It has got a very special visual and material values. Let's add to it an autumn aura, colours and Orońsko light and we have got a reason for sensual impression. This event has also other contexts which allow us to notice its deeper qualities I would like to focus on.
For some years now, Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański has been creating wooden objects and presenting them to the German audiences.What is of special meaning here for the character of these works and their development is the monumental studio in Hamburg - a part of railway cars repair and maintenance shop, which was closed some years ago and then adapted for artistic purposes. The shop, 3000m2 , has become a place of cultural revitalisation.
His new works started to appear several years ago - according to the conditions dictated by the place - from making use of the gigantic old storeroom for railway spare parts. It was accompanied by a clear material-wise decision - wood was chosen, a material so much different in its 'climate' and inner structure from the steel construction of machines which used to fill that place before. This material, so willingly used by sculptors, possesses inherent polemic potential against metal - a symbol of industrialisation, and also possesses great capacities for reaching a monumental scale, possibilites of using various processing techniques and a wonderful richness of species, colours and textures. These initial, starting decisions translate into certain artistic results; in the first phase of Jan's work we saw very large wooden objects of noticeable gravity, strongly attatched to the surface we walk on. They could evoke certain associations with the works of R. Long, characteristic for land art, whose primary rule was wandering on the earth and the encountered natural objects were the 'witnesses' of the way. With Jan de Weryha we see similar, at the first sight, gravitational principle of building the form. However, they are not, as at Long, a 'document' of the wandering but thay are rather evidence of a certain process of examining the wood itself, a consequence of 'entering' this material. First of all they are the first stage of the artist's odyssey which will be followed by other forms, slightly different in their statics and tectonics. Thus, they are not a final result of the journey but actually its beginning.Wysoczański also differs from Long in the landscape; these are not the open spaces of natural landscape - on the contrary, it is a closed interior, unnatural landscape, world created by intensive, modern economy, by the railway - a canonical means of communication for the 'primary modernity'. The route leads us not through a natural landscape but through 'a landscape of industrial culture' - an inner space of a factory. After the floor, there came the time for the walls. This new 'vertical' 'environment' forced a slightly different form of works. Wood must resign from free gravity, which was sufficient for the floor, and must be made vertical, and it most naturally is connected with a kind of construction, a kind of foundation to which you must fix and a kind of frame which will hold. From 2001 - 2003 there appeared many numbered ''Wooden Tables''. On this route there appeared 'The Cube' whose full materialisation we saw in Orońsko. The works that appeared at the stage of 'taming' the walls , and especially The Cube - the first object from the whole collection to be shown in Poland- bring to mind associations with minimal art. This impulse probably results from the fact that they are abstract and geometrical, i.e. arranged in the form of squares, rectangles or cubes. There are also a number of features which do not agree with minimalist associations. Geometric wooden objects of Jan de Weryha are extremely lively and clear in showing the infinite richness of wood forms. It appears geometrically arranged, but raw within,'natural' in its botanical, not rational and geometric shape. It is the rather infinite and spontaneous nature of wood that is geometrically 'framed' - to enable its perception. The sense of Jan de Weryha's objects is to be found in philosophical foundations contrary to minimal art. Minimal art in alliance with conceptualism constitutes an attractive phase of dematerialisation and de-naturalisation of art. After all the objects of Andre, Judd , Morris or Serra are a spatial visualisation of linguistic and mental figures.The stress here is put on tautologies, i.e. an escape from all metaphors, symbols and 'insights', in pursuit of the bases of abstract language and establishing its semantic zero points. The art of the seventies, and especially the decade of the eighties, came into conflict with these tendencies, stressing the power of individual expression, materiality and carnality of artistic acts. And isn't Jan ostentatiously 'carnal'? Carnal in a special sense, because the object of his artistic exploration is wood in its raw form. Minimalist tautologies are the reverse of artistic epiphanies, and de Weryha's art is epiphanic and not tautological; it is a way of revealing something that is 'deeper'; it is creating conditions for clearances and insights.
Weryha's art in agreement with his biography, after all he made his debut in the seventies, is a continuation of the expressivist turning that happened after minimalism and conceptualism. His objects are material, concrete, deeply anchored in the 'nature' of wood; geometry is subordinated, it is a kind of grammar thanks to which 'nature' can speak clearer. Realisations from wood appear in the conditions of late modernity - in the world of globalisation, accelerated consumption, advertising, in the world of algorythms which trap us whenever we visit computer cyberspace. In this world the artist reverses our perception, proposes a renewed look at Nature in its raw form. Clearances, illuminations, insights into nature - epiphanies of nature in the conditions of late modernity.
Works created in a deserted industrial shop in Hamburg appear in Orońsko, in an old manorial chapel, where a completely Polish cultural climate gives the epiphanies of nature an additional spiritual frame.

TVP, 17.06.2005, Katarzyna Frankowska, View?Cat=1772&id=216231
The Identity of Wood

The first building and sculpting material. Can it possess any hidden properties? Or become a medium for new senses? Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański, a Polish artist working in Germany,has made wood the object of his work by . He introduced it into regions from which it was banned by art and technology. The Wilson Shaft Gallery in Katowice, on the premises of an old mine of over 2000 m2 amassed about a hundred abstract works. Their author says that he records wood in archives. His art is a kind of giving order to or gathering forms and figures in which this material appears in nature. He does not encumber the created objects with meanings. He does not build associations. Maybe apart from the most natural ones - let's say archetypal, such as a wall, a window, traces of a bonfire, ant hill.On the surface of the wooden solids he leaves marks of simple tools, attributed to work with this material, and traces of natural elements such as fire. Thanks to it, there appears a certain bond between the abstract form and the viewer because of, you might say, a common past, a co-existence of man and tree lasting thousands of years. Co-existence, because, as the author himself says he is interested in 'the extent to which you can interfere in wood so that it does lose anything from its identity'. There is no doubt that the author places his works within the trend of ecological art. But, curiously, for their presentation he uses phenomena from the domain of art and technology whose consequence was a departure from wood or making it lose its identity. I have in mind minimal art - a stylistics in which these sculptures were made, the post-industrial interior or the context and place of the exhibition, and I mean a trend present in contemporary culture defined as aesthetisation of life - at a superficial glance this exhibition could be recognized as a way of interior decoration. Minimalism means simple geometric solids of a large scale or small, module-like solids made of plywood or glass - smooth materials, wlich eliminate the possibilty of tools leaving any marks or any individualisation of an object. Their task was to draw attention of the viewer to the spatial relations of the whole interior or to the basic relations between the solids themselves, for example their proportions. In Wysoczański's art, the huge cubes or masses of tiny elements of similar shapes attract attention with their texture. Seen from a distance, they evoke in our consciousness a memory of something well familiar. Observed closely, they provide our imagination with material due to the picturesqueness of bark or associations that arise when we see a charred log. etc. Thus the minimalist principle of the nuetrality of the message is preserved only partially. The solids presented in the old branding shop direct the viewers to spaces different from the gallery. Even small fragments of bark or chips of wood ultimately, always bring images of nature. The artist also plays with another of our customs which is to look for aesthetic semsations outside art. Recognizing from a distance, for example, rectangles on the walls or on the floor of the Katowice gallery, we guess familiar, wood-related details: shelves, washboards or books. The effect of surprise in the close contact with the fragments of trees scattered or gathered into collections is thus multipled; it is genuine, raw wood and at the same time a work of art which does not fulfill the principle of usefulness or decorativeness. The exhibition 'Epiphanies of nature in late-modern world' at the Wilson Shaft Gallery in Katowice will be open until the end of 2005. Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański was born in 1950 in Gdańsk. In 1976 he graduated from the Sculpture Department of the Art Academy in that city, in Prof. Alfred Wiśniewski and Prof. Adam Smolana's studio. Since 1981 he has been living and working in Hamburg. Until recently he had his own studio in a room of an old industrial shop. He participated in many exhibitions, among others in Germany, the USA, Luxemburg, Switzerland and Belgium. In Poland he has presented his works twice so far: last year at the Chapel Gallery of the Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko and at the Patio Gallery in Łódź. For the last few years the artist has been using only wood in his art. He uses trees that are to be felled.

OROŃSKO SCULPTURE QUARTERLY, 1-2/2005. Mieczysław Szewczuk, manager of Museum of Contemporary Art in Radom.
Translation from Polish to English by Maria Apanowicz.
Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański – towards minimalism. Exhibitions in Poland

Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański was born in 1950 in Gdańsk, studied sculpture at the Gdańsk Art Academy, graduated in 1976, left Poland in 1981 and setled down in Hamburg. Opened on October 16th 2004 at the Chapel Gallery in Orońsko, the exhibition titled 'Wooden om the series Cubes'( its curator was Leszek Golec) was his first exhibition in Poland since the time he left over 20 years ago. Since that time he has never taken part in collective exhibitions in our country. His works have remained totally unknown so far, and the presentation in Orońsko opens a series of exhibitions which will allow us to get to know his art. Another exhibition opened on January 7th 2005 at the Patio Gallery at the Arts and Economy College in Łódź (the curator was Henryk Gac).
The title of the Orońsko exhibition is the title of the main work which was displayed; it was the Wooden Cube – a large, almost monumental form; placed inside the chapel was a cube with sides 230 centimetre long, whose surfaces were assembled from small sticks. The artist designed the work earlier, but he realised it with the exposition inside the chapel in mind (it is dated 2003). This first sculpture shown in Poland introduced us to his artistic production, indicated both the material and his working technique – wood, which is the material of his realisations, and the tools ( these scraps of wood are made by sawing and then chipping with an axe or a chisel). A simple form becomes an important element of interior decoration, for which the hitherto existing architecture becomes a perfect setting.
With his work Weryha-Wysoczański revives the long tradition of placing a cube in space; possibly the most important of such works is Goethe's who placed a sphere and a cube in Weimar as 'An Altar to Propitious Fate'. For Weryha-Wysoczański a cube is a neutral form, the idea of the form is not as important as its surface; the surface keeps changin in our eyes when we walk around it and during the day, with the daylight constantly moving around it, coming to the interior from three sides, from the widows on the sides and from the open door to the chapel. This daylight, always illuminating the rough surfaces from the sides ( the cube was placed aslant to the walls) reveals the roughness (you could say that it sculpts it); we can see that each form building the surface of the walls ( each chip) is unique, has its colour and softness. We can experience the surfaces of the walls, we can study them. The idea is impossible to grasp; the form of a cube is accessible to our senses only through the surface which is made by nature and revealed by light.
Placing of the cube in the building of an old chapel suggested a possibility of reading the idea of the work through a sacral context, to understand this rationally created art as symbolic objects.
A much larger Łódź exhibition was opened in the new rooms of the Patio Gallery, in the building of the school library (still unfinished). This interior did not allow for making the Cube the main work of the exhibition; the artist and the curator had to take a difficult decision; the four cube walls were placed on the floor and the sense of this unusual realisation got lost. They became similar to some objects from the series 'Wooden Tables' which directly preceded the birth of the Cube.
The artist has been making the monumental, hanging 'Tables' (since 2001) from various pieces of wood, of various size, species and thus structure and colour (there is oak, larch, birch; to obtain contrast and tension – he scorches pine wood to get the effect of charring, he uses bark). The scale and geometrical divisions within the frame of the tables in fact make the compositions turn into elements of architecture; the author says ' modules'.
That exhibition presented the artist's works much more broadly, showing how important – the most important- for the ultimate sense of his actions is the technique of using tools and material. The artist transforms a trunk of a cut down tree into an object by means of a chain saw and axes. He obeys simple rules - respect for material, only necessary actions, use all the bits of wood; even the tiny waste may be used in subsequent works. Anothersculptures-objects are made; the latest works shown in Łódź are vertical wooden blocks with visible cuts with an alectric chain saw; the cuts allowed for chopping off the outer layers of the trunk with an axe and giving it the form of a perpendicular parallelepiped, but they also mark out the cardinal rhythm on the surface of the solids and within the set of forms making up a new entity. (Making a series of works is one of the consequences of such behaviour). The rhythm that is introduced consciously is always significant, special for every work. The artist more and more consistently subordinates himself to the rule of limiting his actions to what results from the technological necessities, to resigning from anything that only embelishes.
Weryha's works constantly refer to geometrical forms, but in many realisations the shapes are far from the precision with which other artists connected with the geometric art trend make their works. The artist talks of his fascination with mininalism 'for ages', first with the first works of Carl Andre, later with other artists, also with minimalist music. He accepted from minimalism many rules, which the great artists from that trend had set, but what happens in his art seems to be a fundamental argument with this trend, its contradiction. What is important is the large scale of his objects, simplicity and repetitiveness of forms, the relation with the surrounding space, yet the ease of using tools and the material itself cause that his sculptures lack the technical coldness of other minimalists' works, but have the softness of 'natural' wood, freely shaped by a working hand of a man.
The artist titled his exhibition in Łódź 'Wood-Archive', and this entry is also used in his website. Again, he draws attention to the material; each piece of wood is a fragment of a tree which has grown for tens of years, and is for us an accessible 'document' of the past history, a record of time. In this way – paradoxically- Weryha transgresses one of the main minimalist rules, which demands to create works free from all content.
Like 'the Cube' in Orońsko, similarly in Łódź what seemed the most important, the best exposed were the large vertical trunks (220cm tall), sharp at the end like a stake or ant hills(both works 'No Title' 2000) placed along the passage across the room. They had unpolished surface, on which remained various rough uneven patches, splinters and shavings. They differed in shape, the division of forms (horizontal cuts divide them into segments), colour (light willow, scorched oak); they reminded me of a totem pole.
What is the most unusual feature of these works, for which the reference point on the map of contemporary art is minimalism, is its relationship with art that is called tribal or primitive, most archaic among the known ones. Just like a creator of those sculptures, a little similarly, our contemporary sculptor places his objects in space in which they become monuments of ideas, they revive the time, the past, memory, as those artists were calling in their ancestors.
The mentioned website (http:free.art.pl/deweryhawysoczanski) lets us get to know the places and space where de Weryha has been working and exhibiting his works for years. In the ruins of a Hamburg district, already considered a historical monument, in Harburg he adapted a vast interior of an industrial shop (over 1500m2 , in the old repair shop of railroad cars, Ausbesserungswerk) and thus he created an excellent space for himself and for his works. He jokes that 'my works look here so much better'. His objects seem to be made for a large srchitectural space; journalists and critics wrote that this interior makes the impression of a temple, a cathedral. (When Weryha faces the problem of arranging an interior he does not lack invention - he creates new objects, once referring to nature forms and other times to the traditional ways of stacking wood).
It is ironic that the exhibitions presenting his art in Poland started at a moment when Weryha had to leave that studio and take his works away (the building is getting modernised). The opening of another large exhibition in Poland was planned for March 18th at the Wilson Shaft Gallery in Katowice, in a huge hall with the exhibition room of over 20002, at an old mine in a distrct that is now an evidence of the distaster and degradation of the old industry and people connected with it. The exhibition titled Epiphanies of Nature in the Late-Modern World will be open until August 31st.
The artist brings into each of these interiors, the material whose structure - in a way intelligible for us- is a record of time. The appearance of wood indoors means that the recording of time has been broken; a man creates a new form and places in this interior as his work, together with an idea that was assigned to it; now it has sense again.
Contemplating the creativity of de Weryha-Wysoczański I may not have highlighted enough the meaning of one of his principles: using tools must be subordinated to revealing the unique structure of each piece of material. Such was his principle when he was designing the monument in Germany commemorating the Poles deported from the Warsaw Uprising 1944, which was erected at the Museum-Memory Place of the old concentration camp in Neuengamme near Hamburg in 1999. On the smooth stone plates laid at ground level, there are three rows of granite stone in the section of an equilateral triangle with rough surface - the work of a stone mason uncovered a texture different from the one you get during typical cutting; the artist suggested a technique for procesing the stone similar to the one he uses while working with wood - chipping. The expected effect of expression different for each stone structure was reached and although the scale of the monument had to be diminished, the day of the opening must have been a moment of great satisfaction for the Polish artist living in Germany. Dr Christina Weiss, culture senator of Hamburg, said in her speech that 'he gave our city (...) a present of a valuable and multilayered work of art which makes a great impression. It is a spatial ,dignified, metaphor for the indescribable cruelty, and immesurable sufferings, a monument which creates space for thought and leaves us with space for thought.' He has the satisfaction that the Hamburg authorities notice his presence in the city. Among the sculptor's successes there is also the 1st prize, Prix de Jury, at the 1998 Spring Salon in Luxemburg at the European Contest of Contemporary Art.

Urszula Usakowska-Wolff, art critic, “Archives of timeless time finiteness”, Art Gallery PATIO, Łódź, 2005.

Archives of timeless time finiteness
A tree grows very slowly and lives very long: several decades or several centuries. In comparison with a slow process of its growth and its longevity, the length of human life is nothing but a short moment. Trees live and die standing, and after their death, despite the finiteness of time, they keep on living in a different form, revealing the richness of potential accumulated for decades. Wood, one of the most exquisite and most universal organic materials, obtained from a fallen tree, reveals the story of a tree’s life, exposes the rhythm of its growth, engraved with light in its growth rings. An artist, who chooses to work in wood, is forced to act in accord with its processing pace. Wood is primeval and slow-processed material, its transformation into a work of art is also a slow process, which demands patience, concentration and respect for the material. In the course of artistic act, wood, a document of time or rhythm of life, evolves into timeless form which records the history of human and nature. In a wooden work of art on exhibition, three stories melt together: the story of a tree, of an artist and of a spectator, who, confronted with the work of culture, experiences time finiteness of his own existence. Wood symbolizes as well sensuality; unlike any other material, it evokes many associations: it is both rough and smooth; sharp and blunt, linear and round, tough and soft, cold and warm, flexible and motionless, dark and fair, loud and quiet. This contrasts contribute to the rhythm of wood which is an element of time structure. Its rhythm influences its form, it is a kind of tune, a means of artistic expression. The form is also an expression of life, and the culture conveys its nature.
Since late 1990s, wood is a favourite material of Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański. Exploring its mysterious texture and essence of wood became, on one hand, an artistic credo of the artist, on the other hand, his walk of life, far from the life in noisy, chaotic, superficial reality of everyday life, and far from the commercialized market of art. His choice of wood as a main means of artistic expression was a conscious act of protest against the reality around, the last hope of the artist for freeing himself from everyday life’s necessities – like being a manufacturer of art-like accessories for sale. It was an attempt to find a way to tidy up the problems of the world, a way to control the chaos. Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański opposes the frantic pace of superficial existence to slow, strenuous and complicated process of research and creation, when, during the physical and intellectual effort, which lasts even a few months, the works of art of simple forms and intricate surfaces have been created – the works of art which encourage meditation and which emanate with rough beauty and simple harmony. The fact that Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański has decided to choose to work in wood could be also a consequence of his earlier experiences from the past. Born in 1950 in Gdańsk, the artist, who moved to Hamburg when he was 31, studied in the department of sculpture of Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Sztuk Plastycznych (The National Academy of Fine Arts) in his hometown at the banks of the Moltava River. There he learned from the outstanding sculptors – professors: Alfred Wiśniewski and Adam Smolana, who created anthropomorphic sculptures in wood, which referred to classical statues. What the artist gained from the eduaction in Gdańsk is an excellent theoretical background and, what is quite uncommon in Germany, an excellent practical knowledge of sculpture craft. To call Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański a sculptor is not enough; he is as well a sculptor of grand format and an architect able to organize the biggest interior space.

According to the nature of his favourite material, works of Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański are being born slowly, some of them demand even a nine-month work, which makes them creatures born in the act of creation. The forms, extracted from the inside of wood, bore traces of tools used by the artist: a saw, an axe, a chisel and a hammer. They remain on his works forever, as the surfaces of Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański’s works are not smoothed out, polished or embellished with French polish; his objects exist in minimally changed, but still primal ecological purity. The ready works, in solid forms of cuboids, circles, pyramids, columns or obelisks or in the similar forms, are not narrative because they do not tell any stories, they have stories deep-rooted in themselves. They are marked with traces of a tree’s life and with traces left by the artist, their surfaces make a spectator aware of the story of their creation. Their rounded or angular shapes can be also read as symbols of the Earth, the Moon, burial mounds and tomb stones, which are the symbols of lasting, growing and passing away. Sometimes Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański singes or chars individual elements or the whole objects. The process results into a transformation of wood from a vegetal state into mineral one, through the artistic interference the plant changes into a mineral. Because of wood qualities, a carefully thought-over and apparently unemotional art becomes impetuous, when the sculptor interferes into wood in such a way that he should not to lose anything in its identity: It functions in practice due to introduction of strict rules, which an artist has to negotiate in its empirical dispute with nature. Certain rhythms emerge, on the other hand, some monotony prevails. I choose these two phenomena as subjects trying to highlight the process in progress, which is surprising with its pulsating balance. Simultaneously I introduce certain geometry, full of matter-of-fact ways of expression, which inspired me in minimal art. I am also interested in individual, unrepeatable tangle of artificially created, but naturally working wooden surfaces, where the traces of tool interference are minimal, says Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański, who uses in his works only the wood obtained from blowdown trees or sanitary clearing.
The art created by this universal artist is an art of contrasts. It is minimalistic, which means both uniform and unindividualized in its form, but it characterizes with widely varied, individual surfaces. It is a continuation and enrichment of minimal art, it is related to it by its masterful use and control of space. The objects of Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański hold a conversation with the space, they are extension of the space, as they refer to signs, characteristic for the interior where they have been placed or hung. Some are covered with a delicate net which resembles outline of bricks on white painted wall. His mural works, entitled “Drewniane Tablice” (Wooden Boards), look from the distance like swaying cloths, in close perspective as libraries of wood called xyloteques, which were created at the end of the 18th century. They are more and more architectonical, they enter the space, they look like windows on the facades of Prussian walls, like gates in village fences or balconies in blocks of flats. They stimulate imagination, evoking most surprising associations. Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański is an exceptionally creative artist, unbelievably hard-working. For the last eight years he has created more than one hundred works of impressive size and quality. Some of them are made of dozens, or hundreds of thousand tiny pieces of wood, more than several hundred years old. It is a unique archives of timeless time finiteness.

© Urszula Usakowska-Wolff

Dr. Jan Stanisław Wojciechowski

Epiphanies of nature in late-modern world.
Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański’s objects in wood.

Works of Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański have appeared again, after many years of absence, in the circle of Polish culture of fine arts and are inspiring numerous reflections of personal, social, a little political and first of all artistic/aesthetic character.

I can’t help starting with a personal remark – my first meeting with Jan in July 2004 from the first moment was unusually friendly and sincere, like with an old friend who once had had to go away, to return suddenly and continue the then broken conversations on the subject of perspectives of contemporary art, on the state of Polish artistic culture, the situation of artists in the new cultural space which has now spread ... thanks to a new configuration of countries, societies and cultures in the united Europe and global economy. And yet, I had not met Jan before – he was growing as an artist at the same time – in the seventies, but as a student of the Gdańsk art academy he was learning in a little different artistic environment from mine which was Warsaw. Besides he spent a major part of his mature artistic life in Germany, whereas I was experiencing the changing historical fate of Poland. Leaving Poland did not break the cultural bond, as proved our friendly meeting so full of common themes.

The story of his life and then my analysis of his works allowed me to notice another aspect connected with the artist – the knowledge and abilities gained in Poland were not and are not contrary to the practice and expectations of German public and critics. Jan’s professional practice and especially the artistic productions developed in his own atelier, Ausbesserungswerk in Hamburg and presented in the last years in the circle of German art institutions, favorably commented by the authorities of German artistic life, meets with a very good reception in Poland. Now, apart from a large exhibition at the Wilson Shaft Gallery, Jan has several others in prospect, among them one at the institution canonical for contemporary Polish art – at the Centre of Polish Sculpture. This parallel interest in Germany and in Poland does not surprise me; the political barriers, which influenced Jan’s departure from Poland, were not cultural barriers, at least in the seventies. Modern art, closely rationed in Poland back in the fifties and even the sixties, became widely common in some galleries and departments of Polish academies in the seventies. There was a very interesting episode in the Polish cultural life of the seventies. Artists, especially the youngest generation – Wysoczański’s peers - without any inhibitions adopted for their own needs various trends that dominated all ‘art world’ of those times: conceptualism, minimal art, performance, new media. They were exploring the best examples of late neo-avant-garde according to the zeitgeist - weakening the speculative, purely notional character of conceptualism, either introducing personalistic elements or turning to political, anthropological contexts, to the material substance of art, to nature. Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański left Poland with a baggage of European intellectual and artistic values.

For some years Jan de Weryha Wysoczański has been making objects of wood and showing them to the German audience. What matters for the character and development of this work is the artist’s monumental studio in Hamburg – an old industrial site (a part of the closed rolling-stock repair and maintenance works), which according to a good European practice of the last tens of years in many cities was adapted with the help of the city authorities for artistic purposes and offered for the use… of two artists, Jan Wysoczański being one of them. A 3000m2 workshop, huge post-industrial space has become a place of cultural re-vitalization… The very fact of giving the old industrial room to the possession of artists has got a tremendous potential of meaning. It is a sign of a certain ‘turn of things’ characteristic for the contemporary developed Western societies where a strained modernization reached its late stage; technical and engineering activities and accompanying intensive transformation of the natural surrounding encounter some resistance and are radically questioned. What gains a greater significance for development is an intellectual effort and a spiritual space, shaped and furnished by the symbolic culture, especially art. The work of Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański fits this process very well.

His new works started to appear a few years ago – in accordance with the conditions dictated by the place - first he had to make the floor of the giant workshop, which used to be the old warehouse of spare rolling-stock parts. It was accompanied by a clear decision about the material – he chose wood, material so different in its ‘climate’ and inner structure from the steel machine constructions that had filled the space before. This material, so often used by sculptors, possesses a certain polemic potential against metal – a symbol of industrialization, but it also has huge inherent capacities for gaining monumental scale, capacities for using various technologies of processing, unusual richness of species, colours, and textures. These preliminary, initial decisions transcribe into certain artistic results; in the first stage of Jan’s production we obtained very large wooden objects of significant weight, strongly attributed to the surface we tread on. It may evoke certain associations with the, so characteristic for land art, works of R.Long, who made his wanderings on land an original rule of his art; he made stones – the objects of nature he met – the ‘witnesses’ of this journey, and the spiral forms that he assembled from them expressed and enhanced this earthly gravity. Jan de Weryha’s works share a similar - at first sight – gravitational rule of building forms. It is especially visible in objects (“Wooden Column” 2003, “Wooden Cube”) and circles (“No Title” 2003) built of loosely stacked wooden chips and cuttings. However, they are not – as Long did - ‘a document’ of a journey but rather a trace of a certain process of looking at the wood itself, a consequence of ‘going into’ this material. They are first of all a first stage of the artist’s odyssey, which will be followed by other forms, slightly different in their statics and tectonics. Thus, they are not a final trace of a fulfilled journey, but actually its beginning. Another thing that radically differs Long from Wysoczański is the landscape; there are no open spaces of natural landscape, but –contrary- there is a closed interior, an unnatural space, world created by sophisticated, modern economy, by the railways- the canonical means of transport of ‘primary modernity’. The route is not marked out by the nature-scape but by ‘the landscape of industrial culture’ – the inner space of a factory. The walls followed the floor. This new – vertical- environment required a new slightly different form of works. The inner matter – the insides of various species of wood is more deeply uncovered. This matter must resign from a free gravity which sufficed for the floor, it must be made vertical and this in a most natural way is related to some kind of a construction – a kind of base to which you attach things and a certain frame which will hold it. In the years 2001-2003 numerous numbered “Wooden Boards” were made.

On the so marked out ’route‘, defined by the inner space of a magnificent edifice, one can probably expect objects that in the future would use the construction of the roof. We have to wait for this moment, because Jan’s tour around his own territory has got its own rhythm and duration, measured by the way artistic ideas take shape in his head.

The works that appeared at the stage of exploiting the walls bring to mind some associations with minimal art. Such associations are present in the statements of some of the people writing about his objects. They are probably guided by the impulse originating from the fact that they are non-figural, abstract, geometric, i.e. ordered in the form of square, rectangle and cube figures. What supports those comparisons is the fact that some vertical objects order wood assembling it like books and making powerful, mysterious ‘libraries’. Let’s add that to be honest the critics also notice a number of features that disprove the associations with minimalism. Jan de Weryhas’s geometric objects are extraordinarily vital and emphatic in revealing forms of wood infinite in their richness. It appears geometrically ordered, but inside it is rough, ‘natural’ in its biological and not rational or geometrical form. It is rather the infinite and spontaneous nature of wood that is limited into the geometrical frame in order to enable its perception. Thus associations with minimalism are superficial. I see the sense of Jan de Weryha’s objects in philosophical foundations quite different from minimal art. Minimal art in alliance with conceptualism is an impressive phase of dematerialization and de-naturalization of art. The objects of Andre, Judd, Morris or Serra are spatial images of linguistic devices and mental figures. The stress is laid here on tautologies, i.e. an escape from all metaphors, symbols and ‘illuminations’ in pursuit of achieving the foundations of abstract language and defining its starting points of meaning. Minimal objects are devised in such a way that they ‘say’ only what is seen in the geometric, indifferent material-wise and space-wise surface or solid. The art of the seventies, and especially the decade of the eighties came into a sharp clash with these tendencies, stressing the power of individual expression, materiality and especially carnality of artistic acts. This turn is characteristic for late modernity (to avoid the slightly de-valued notion of ‘post-modernism’). And isn’t Jan ostentatiously ‘carnal’? Carnal in a special sense, because it is wood in its raw form that is the object of his artistic exploitation. Minimalist tautologies are the reverse of artistic epiphanies, and de Weryha’s art is – in my opinion - epiphanic not tautological. To avoid misunderstandings, epiphanic art is a way of revealing what is ‘deeper’, it is releasing ‘the light’, and it is creating conditions for those ‘perforations’ and insights.

Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański rises from this late-modern opposition to dematerialization of art; his art is a celebration of materiality, ‘carnality’ of wood. It could be said that Weryha’s art – according to his biography; after all he made his debut in the seventies – is a continuation of that expressivist turning that occurred after minimalism and conceptualism. Jan de Weryha remains as much as possible Modern and just like minimal art he is situated in a certain canonical modernist discourse, but he appears to be at its different stage. At the source of his works we will find the always-recurring dispute, present in European culture for a long time. It is in the 18th century that this argument became especially articulate - the echoes of it clearly reach the present times – when a fundamental breakthrough in the perception of relations between man and nature took place. In brief, what happened was that the opposition between ‘the naturalistic’ and ‘romantic’ perception of nature clarified. The divine powers are transferred onto nature. In the naturalistic concepts of Enlightenment it also had regulatory functions accepted on the grounds of usefulness. These concepts are also the foundation of our contemporary technical civilization and progress understood first of all in material terms.

Simultaneously, at that time nature was perceived in closer and closer relationship with human cognitive capabilities. Access to nature is also perceived more and more often as an act of man’s inner voice; we can recognize it fully only if we articulate what we find inside us. Since then nature appears in the prism of human articulations, manifests itself in the forms of human expression. Expression i.e. showing something with the help of a medium; man becomes this ‘medium’, first of all a sensitive man, that is an artist. These ideas were usually referred to by the opponents of the pragmatism and utilitarianism of technological civilization. This side was usually taken by the supporters of the creative powers of human mind/spirit in its form not reduced to practical reason. The philosophical theory of nature as a source from which we can draw as if through ourselves, proved conclusive for the great ferment of ideas and sensitivity that is also given the name of ‘romanticism’. This sensitivity captivated all European culture, and never ceased to be the reference point for radical criticism and polemics from ‘ all kinds of naturalists and scientists’ fully questioning or closely limiting the extent of the human mediation of nature.

In the 20th century this dispute enters a new phase. It was not done at the time of the 20th century modernism to fall back on romanticism. At best it happened in an ironic or critical mode. Many modernists described themselves as anti-romanticists. In the 20th century, nature in its strong naturalistic cognitive approaches will have been placed within linguistic rules, and the criteria for correctness of reasoning were formulated by English analysts or neopositivists – logicians, mathematicians, and theoreticians of language. These intellectual fashions are artistically reflected in minimalism, described here, and conceptualism. Romanticism appeared in a rather trivial form of pop-cultural, mawkish visualizations. However, that idea which was vividly present in 19th century Britain, was later taken up and developed in Germany by, among others, Herder or Holderlin, and in philosophically elaborated way it will strongly reappear with Heidegger. Isaiach Berlin attempted to bring the philosophical decline of romanticism to back to contemporary European culture in his famous Mellonian lectures in fine arts. These ideas regain an important position in many trends of the French post-structuralism and American neo-pragmatism, and also in contemporary German philosophers and sociologists; apart from that they have found their place in the intellectual and political debate carried out in the nineties around the idea of ‘the third way’. The latest efforts to adapt certain, newly interpreted, aspects of romantic spirituality to Polish philosophy of culture seem very interesting as well.

Within the orbit of this dispute remains of course the 19th and especially 20th century art spanning between the ‘objectivist’ works of constructivist avant-garde and various forms of individual expression. The art of the last three decades of the 20th century and the latest art is a reflection of this ‘expressivist turn’; in its main stream it is definitely contextual, exploiting body, earth, matter, and also critical of the claims of practical reason and its civilization products.

Jan de Weryha’s objects are not notional figures, nor are they a purely conceptual position in the debate on the way notional creations exist. Jan de Weryha’s objects are material, concrete, anchored deeply in the ‘nature’ of wood. His efforts at capturing wood in geometrical structures are not motivated by the willingness to achieve a purely intellectual rigour; geometry is auxiliary, it is a kind of grammar thanks to which ‘nature’ can speak out more clearly. And maybe they are only a way of encouraging ‘nature’ to speak out, to reveal its own features, unnoticeable in the common expression.

His works in wood appear in the conditions of late modernism- that is in the world of globalization, accelerated consumption, advertising, in the world of algorithms in which we are caught any time we visit the computer cyberspace. In such world, the artist makes a revolt, reverses our perception, and offers another insight into Nature in its raw form. Perforations, illuminations, insights into nature – epiphanies of nature in the conditions of late modernism.

Placing his work and its results in the form of objects in old factories and mines, Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański re-enters the old polemics, as old as the history of modernism. He takes a stand in the debate on the role and place of human spirituality in the creation of contemporary world. He argues from ‘romantic’ positions, according to which the world cannot be created in any other way but from the position of man, only after being elaborated by human sensitivity. He starts this work as if in disagreement with those who would like to model it only in the ‘technological’ mode, which now means an emphasis on the development of digital media and anthropo-technology, and also means preferring the ruthless, global economic rules whose human roots are limited to ‘instincts’ and egoism.

What is worth noticing is the fact that he undertakes this activity without the help of other people who care for such direction of changes in our reality and who are able to design and finance new functions of old industrial sites, which make a ‘natural environment’ for de Weryha. In the German society it is public authorities - the city councils that have initiative in such matters, in Poland – it is a very positive phenomenon worth highlighting – it is business people who revitalize old industrial spaces for artistic purposes. This is a very interesting background for the Wilson Shaft Gallery. The gallery is situated in a great hall of an ex-mine on the border of Janów and Niszowiec, old Silesian district full of family blocks. It was founded by people who are not indifferent to the life of Silesian people and their culture. Unfortunately, it is a place which seems to have focused all the ailments and problems connected with civilization changes.

Romantic ideas have brought back to life German literature and philosophy, but it is generally thought that Polish culture arises from Romanticism, and is always quarrelling with this heritage. It assumes surprising meanings nowadays, at the age of late modernism and on the new map of European spirituality where Poland and Germany are no longer divided by an ‘iron curtain’. Let’s add to this a completely real dimension of this community. Works conceived in the deserted industrial plant in Hamburg are proudly presented in the rooms of the old mine in the Upper Silesia and simultaneously they will appear in Orońsko, in an old manorial chapel, where the entirely Polish cultural climate will give an additional spiritual framework to the epiphanies of nature. Just like a certain historical fact, namely Yalta, influenced Jan de Weryha-Wysoczański’s continuity of life and artistic career, a new historical fact - now a new stage of the unification of Europe – may give his artistic works a doubled power gained thanks to the presence of aspects characteristic for both German and Polish art, present in both cultures for ages but again up-to-date and alive.

The ‘Romantic’ voice of nature appears highly resonant in his works not only as a balance for the ‘voice of cyberspace’ dominating global media. Wysoczański’s works bring back the imperative of introducing the human spirituality into the process of recognizing reality and creating it according to human needs. Such is the social dimension of his work. Deep down at the source of Jan’s work I can notice the idea that we are not governed by powers that are indifferent ethically and ruthless for the weaker, predestined to be excluded, powers whose economic paraphrase is ‘an invisible hand’. We always act in the world conditioned by human decisions