On May 17th, a retrospective exhibition of the late Belgian photographer Paul Sochacki opened at the Biała Gallery. A group of guests from Belgium – Paul Sochacki’s friends from Tuinwijk2020, and Stichting Erfgoed Eisden, two associations of which Paul was a board member – participated in the opening.
Paul Sochacki was born in 1956, in Mechelen-aan-de-Maas, Belgium. In 1978-82 he studied photography and graphic design at the Stedelijk Hoger Instituut voor Visuele Communicatie en Vormgeving in Genk. From 1984 to 2018 he taught the analysis and study of image elements at the Luca School of Arts in Genk.
The exhibition presents a wide spectrum of his works, ranging from large-format analogue photographs combined with painting gestures, through photographs on porcelain and photograms, to digital photography. The exhibition includes works created between the 1980s and 2016. The theme of Sochacki’s art is nature in an inseparable bond with man, the cyclical nature of life and death, and the inevitability of transience. It raises the issue of the dualism of man and woman, light and darkness, and the moment when light generates darkness and darkness generates light.
The exhibition was created with the help form Mieke Dus, the heir to the Sochacki’s entire artistic legacy.
The meeting with the Belgian guests was an excellent opportunity to share the idea of Lublin’s application for the title of European Capital of Culture 2029, which involves dialogue between various fields of art, cultures, and generations.
The exhibition will be open until August 2, 2024, from Tuesday to Saturday from 12.00 – 6.00 pm and on the Night of Culture (June 1) from 6.00 to 10.00 pm.
The author of the photos is Ludo Coenen.
