Jakub Dziewit, "This Is Not Another Martin Parr Exhibition" - recenzja

Abstract

"Jakub Dziewit, This Is Not Another Martin Parr Exhibition. Katowice: grupakulturalna.pl, 2018. 30 pages. A cloth-bound photobook. A small book in a landscape format, bound in elegant, albeit somber, black cloth, triggers one’s curiosity with its rather brusque declaration as to what it is not. Of course, the very presence of Jakub Dziewit’s name, featuring rather prominently on the cover, leaves no doubt as to whether the photobook, or the exhibition it accompanied, could be Martin Parr’s. And yet, the concurrence, on the same cover, of the names of the Master and the Disciple – both of whom employ photography as a tool of anthropological insight – may either be read as a statement of the already recognized student’s impatience with what he perceives to be his prolonged apprenticeship... or as a playful wink of an eye. Anyone even vaguely familiar with the work of the British photographer will realize that between documenting the quotidian life of what he himself once dubbed a Small World and curating major exhibitions, he amuses himself collecting – and reviewing – photobooks. At first glance, therefore, Dziewit’s intentions seem obvious. As Parr’s admirer, as a photographer, and as a literary and cultural theoretician betraying a rather prominent inclination towards post-structral anthropology, he could have a very good motive to play on the British reporter’s curiosity. After all, few creative artists would remain truly indifferent to their nnames if they saw it on the cover of an artbook representing their own discipline."