WACLAW ROPIECKI (PETER PILGRIM)TO LIFE THROUGH ART PRESS RELEASE05 - 12.10.1981

Knowledge of the innermost nature of life is carried within every human being, according to Wacław Ropiecki, the current exhibitor at Galerie S:t Petri. But for various reasons, one does not always have the right means to reach this mysterious source.

Art is a path to life, he also believes. So are philosophy and science. But he sees the artist, the philosopher, and the scientist as thinkers who go to the root of an idea and not as narrow specialists dependent on a time-bound way of thinking and acting.

Wacław Ropiecki emphasizes the importance of constantly devoting oneself to self-study, reflection, and introspection in order to discover, or rather rediscover (remember), phenomena that already exist. For about a decade he has taken pictures of himself in various contexts — in military service, while travelling somewhere, together with friends. In the beginning, art became for him a path to self-therapy. He must try to reconnect the relationship between himself and life. Wacław Ropiecki wants to come away from the fragmented self. He wants to restore to the human being the possibility to live with truth, knowledge of life. There is no clear answer to what love, art, or religion actually is, he believes. These are constantly changing processes in which humans participate.

The exhibition runs until 12 October 1981 and is open weekdays 15–20, Saturdays 13–17.