Od Dokumentu ku Wiecznej TeraĽniejszości. Fotografia w Spotkaniu z Sacrum na Wybranych Przykładach Przedsięwzięć Janusza Boguckiego i Niny Smolarz
From the Documentary to the Eternal Present. Photography in the Encounter with the Sacrum in Selected Examples of Projects by Janusz Bogucki and Nina Smolarz

Summary/Abstract: The article is an attempt to look at the phenomenon of oppositional art in churches through selected exhibitions by Janusz Bogucki and Nina Smolarz. From the second half of the 1970s, Bogucki developed the concept of “return to home and place of worship” in response to the artistic Tower of Babel he saw at documenta 5 in Kassel (1972). In this idea, rediscovering the sacrum and the sacrum of art became a key issue. The text describes their three most important projects: Sign of the Cross in the church of Divine Mercy and St. Faustina in Warsaw (1983), Apocalypse - light in darkness in the Holy Cross church in Warsaw (1984), and Labyrinth – a subterranian space in the Church of Lord’s Ascension in Warsaw (1989). Photography played an important role in these projects, so they are analyzed from this perspective. The photos used in the discussed exhibitions evoked the memory of facts of the distant past or yesterday, and along with the memory - the thoughts and emotions associated with it. Bogucki and Smolarz introduced these documentary images into a space saturated with prayer and art, into the atmosphere of sacred architecture. In this way, they imposed the atmosphere of a place where life facts are seen in the perspective of eternity. The aim of these treatments was to create a sense of community and experience of the sacrum.

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