Aporia: zwielokrotnione wizerunki, sparafrazowane obrazy
Aporia: Multiplied Depictions, Paraphrased Images

Summary/Abstract: The author reflects on a domain of the visual arts that is part of the domain of aporia, and that intrigues with its semantic brilliance, evades binding interpretations, and provokes ever new ways of deciphering while at the same time situating itself on the borderline of the canonical, the recognised and the known in art. The author shows the evocative potential of a little-known graphic self-portrait by the forgotten Polish graphic artist Wanda Komorowska (1873-1946), its susceptibility to interpretation and inclination towards assorted research contexts as well as resistance vis à vis methodical discourse closed with an ultimate conclusion. The point of reference in the discourse are mirror reflections in the art of Whistler and Japanese woodcuts, double (Stanisław Wyspiański) and multiple (Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz) portraits with symbolic connotations as well as simultaneous photographic portraits from the Bauhaus range (Moholy-Nagy) and multiplied self-portraits by Warhol. The author’s argumentation shows that it is impossible to resolve definitely whether Komorowska’s Self-portrait is situated at the beginning of this development line in the art of the portrait, which leads to the stance represented by Duchamps and Warhol, re-evaluating cultural tradition, or whether it is part of a formula of the portrait disclosing the dualism of the human ego, its rational and unconscious dimension (Surrealists). The patrons of the interpretation proposed by the author are Barthes (the conception of the punctum in photography) and Baudrilllard (the simulacrum). The register of different formulas of the multiplied image contains also the “tableau” as art of the photographic frame paraphrasing the traditional conventions of depiction (Man Ray), which enhances reflection on the ontological character of the photograph as a medium. The dialogue with art of the past questions the purely mimetic nature of depiction and makes us aware of the creative power of art stemming from surrounding reality – provincial, common and prosaic (Krzywobłocki, Schulz, Sielska). The perspective of Derridaean associations, accepted by the author, leads invariably towards the sphere of irresolvable interpretations.

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