Piotr Bujak
BLACK AND WHITE

Exhibition Period: April 11 (Fri) – 20 (Sun), 2025
Time: 1:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Venue: Exhibition Room, 2nd Floor, University Hall, Ueno Campus, Tokyo University of the Arts

Black and White is a showcase comprising three time-based media projects by artist and researcher Piotr Bujak, where the common denominator is a gesture of color manipulation. Deliberate reduction to a grayscale as well as resizing and  time manipulation, turns these already simple, yet poetic and visuals into a more versatile form, bridging conceptual criticism and subversion in a characteristic for the author’s simplistic style.

Operating in a framework of speculative documentation, Black and White relates strongly to the idea of disarmed burning light_s. By desaturating recorded images, slowing down the dynamics of the cinematographic elements or multiplying overscaled photographic prints, it  builds a narrative of contemplative disturbia, very appropriately commenting actual socio-political zeitgeist, even though selected works come from an over 10 year long creative timespan.

Finally, BLACK AND WHITE a bit perversely refers to SDGs agenda, as it tackles issues affiliated with responsible consumption as well as peace, justice and strong institutions, rendering them somewhat from the other side of the mirror.

Source material for pieces on a display comes respectively from:

Xvideo, TRT: 15min07sec, 2012
ten burning cigarettes shaped in a triangle, filmed from the border view perspective

HANABIvideo, TRT: 37min39sec, 2019
found footage material depicting fireworks festival in Japan

B/W
photo installation, print on paper, 24 elements 84cm x 110cm each
image of a red light mounted to one of many police boxes located around Tokyo

Bio
Piotr Bujak

Polish interdisciplinary artist and independent researcher born in 1982. Graduate of Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, Poland (MFA 2009), San Francisco Art Institute, California, USA (MFA 2012) and Tama Art University, Tokyo, Japan (PhD 2022). As a Fulbright fellow he studied with Lynn Hershman Lesson, Renee Green and Stephanie Syjuco. As a MEXT student was affiliated with Akihito Kubota. Currently employed as a JSPS postdoctoral researcher in the Yoshitaka Mouri lab at the School of Global Arts of Tokyo University of the Arts.

Interested mainly in cross-cultural, comparative analysis about identity, politics, media and cultural heritage, he bridges practice-based art research with experimental anthropology and social critique. Employing Do It Yourself, Low Budget, Quick & Dirty and Hit and Run strategies, with references to conceptualism, minimalism, avant-garde and arte povera, his work ranges from and combines time-based media, staged-for-camera performances, installation, sculpture, digital print, found objects, interventions, and vandalism.

Cordinated by Kenichiro Egami (Project Assistant Professor, TUA)

*This exhibition was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP23KF0219.