Agricultural machines which were photographed by the artist were constructed using parts coming from different vehicles. The first ones were made in Podhale in the sixties. It was caused by a complicated socio-political situation in Poland. As Lukasz Skapski says, agricultural machines produced by the country were available mainly for state-owned enterprises, dominating in the plains of central Poland. For the farmers of southern Poland these tractors were too expensive and insufficient in the mountain region. All these factors: economical, social and practical made the farmers produce their agricultural machines by themselves, machines that were cheap and fulfilled their expectations.
Lukasz Skapski was interested in these strange handmade machines because of their, how he calls it, "anti-corporation" character. He was interested in people's exceptional way of adapting to the existing socio-political conditions, alternative economies, specific anarchy and absurdity of situation which made the farmers become inventors and constructors. The artist brings back to memory this practice, forgotten in the late capitalism, which lasted in Podhale for 40 years (the youngest photographed tractor is from 2003). The artist presents the machines with sense of humour, recalling the times of communism when meeting even the most obvious consumption needs was an unbelievable problem and very often the only solution was this sort of private production.
The artistic analysis is also focused on the interesting design of the vehicles which reflects the times in which the machines were constructed. However, the construction problems were dominating over the aesthetics. The films accompanying the photographical documentation reveal constructors' emotional approach to their machines that are a part of some kind of peculiarity of the region. "Machines" of Lukasz Skapski is a truly original project because the artist combines different perspectives: art with ethnography, sociology, history and even engineering.
Opening Saturday 21 Ocotber 5 - 7 pm.