LUCIA PAPČOVÁ

I work with the space of landscape as a material for abstract perception, co - creation of the image by the viewer. Creating an open ended image, not trying to communicate an idea formulable in language. Using a medium, which is described as having a certain exact relation to the commonly shared outside world, I adopt the limitations set by it as a part of the process. With my large format camera I seek for specific light conditions, shooting analog black and white, printing on fiber paper. Image, formed by light, without adjustments, has then a direct link to the moment in past, to a certain cumulation of light - space - presence in the environment we share. What was before the camera is dimmed, obscured - either by outside light situations, matter - fog, mist, or by the amount of light I let inside the camera. What interests me in the end is the space that forms in the mind of the spectator, who is invited to enter the image.

The process of creating the images incorporates a long time spent in valleys, mountains, observing the light conditions which could produce a material for an abstract image. Landscape is my co - worker, co - performer. The time spent in landscape also shapes my own perception - being outside a human constructed rhythm of the day.

In the time of integration of virtual reality into daily life, when losing the connection to one's own body and physical world is slowly becoming a wide spread problem; with information added to objects, roads, spaces - my strategy is to work analog, carrying the camera, waiting to see the image only after developing, spending time in darkroom and putting the importance on the physical print of the photograph (only there the wide spectrum of grey can be visible ), removing the information, the reference to a specific place. Inviting the spectator to enter, to co - create, to stare, without distraction, on something he can't finish.

In time of the Anthropocene, I base my work on acceptation of limits and pose a question - what can the acceptation of limits offer us.