Self-made City is an exhibition of prints by Agnieszka Łakoma. It comprises pieces which address the issue of architectural forms (from a series entitled Self-made City), as well as light boxes (from a series entitled Moving City). The artist provokes one to look at the city as an art form built of wavy surfaces which change depending on the angle of light rays and acuity of one’s vision. In her works, Łakoma consistently explores the field of print, using its classic formal elements such as lines and gradation of colour. Simultaneously, she experiments with new techniques thus achieving extraordinary effects and making the message conveyed by her artworks more explicit.

Agnieszka Łakoma’s two artistic paths, namely geometric abstraction from the series Curtains (2006) and urban space which was given prominence in the Consumo project (2009), meet in Self-made City. Interest in optical effects leads her to creation of artworks which step out from the surface and enter the space of one’s imagination. Rhythmical and shadowy elements compose op-art illusions of solids which move and change their position as a result of lenticular printing, serigraphy and light boxes. Lines become wavy surfaces or moveable walkways. In prints, similarly to cities, movement creates spaces in which we live and through which we move.

Individual pieces reveal traces of buildings. However, none of them becomes authoritatively defined since their completion is to be found in the onlooker’s imagination. Here, a viewer is invited to co-create a work of art – just like in the Japanese rock garden which finds its meaning in the visitor who contemplates it. Everyone who moves around the city is capable of creating its space in their imagination. Do we not perceive the city from different viewpoints and in different light? Do we not have our favourite sights? A combination of solids is not protected by designer’s copyrights – any image of the city belongs to those who “encounter” it and, consequently, consciously or unconsciously, manufacture it anew. Self- made City is a singular afterimage of an urban space which reflects the gaze of the artist and our faces that look at it.

Aleksandra Görlich