Above The River And Under The Sky by Maciej Markowicz at Inn Situ
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Opens15 Apr 2026
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Ends18 Jul 2026
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Link
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Author
- Location Innsbruck, Austria
To commemorate 200 years since the invention of photography, INN SITU will be showcasing an artist whose work practice is deeply entwined with the beginnings of the photographic process.
Overview
Maciej Markowicz works with a camera obscura, which is based on a principle already known to Aristoteles in the 4th century BC. In 1826, it was applied by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce to successfully produce the first known photograph. The camera obscura is a dark room into which light enters through a hole or lens. In Markowicz’s case, however, this room is located on a boat or in a van. He has transformed each of these vehicles into a camera that moves while he photographs his motifs.
His lens allows light to enter the chamber for eight seconds – light which required eight minutes to travel from the sun to the earth. It hits large-format sheets of chromogenic photographic paper, resulting in directly exposed color negatives. Each work is a handmade, unreproducible unique piece. Photography akin to painting, sculpture, and performance.
In conjunction with his exploration of the region the artist created works involving Alpine rivers such as the Inn, Lech, or the Alpine Rhine, photographed in Tyrol and Vorarlberg from bridges, which usually remain invisible, since the movement of the camera blurs everything nearby. The series of landscape photographs is supplemented with portraits taken by the artist in public spaces in Innsbruck. Above the river and under the sky, in the hovering spatial and temporal sphere of human existence.
About The Artist
His works have been shown at the Tate Modern in London, the Polish Institute in Berlin, or at the Anne Clergue Gallery in Arles, to name a few. His works can be found in collections such as that of the Musée français de la Photographie and the Art Collection of the German Bundestag and have been featured in publications such as L’Œil de la Photographie and the British Journal of Photography, among others. In 2017, Markowicz received a stipend from the Goethe Institute and the German Foreign Ministry for a one-year European tour with the Camera Obscura Boat. The artist lives and works in Berlin. Above the River and Under the Sky is his first solo exhibition in Austria.
