The intermedia exhibition of the Ewa Doroszenko and Jacek Doroszenko duo consists of a series of photographs, unique photographic objects, a sound installation, and video works, created in recent years as part of Artist-in-Residence programs in Norway, Lithuania, Czechia, and Spain. The works of the Doroszenko duo are an artistic double-voice, in which the authors undertake intermedia interventions in the natural landscape, exploring the relationship between the individual and the landscape.

We live in a time of hybrid nature, where the line between accidental products and those which are directed, virtual or artificially transformed is blurred, and where it is increasingly difficult to find places that allow for a truly untamed experience of the landscape. Humanity has lost its original capacity for mindfulness in favor of staged mindfulness trends, and modern tourism is often preceded by exploring Google Maps, reading reviews, and watching other travelers’ Instagram stories. By posing hypotheses about our relationship with nature, the artists themselves practice rituals of nomadic wandering based on constant collaboration, dialogue, and exchange. The exploratory “traveling without tourism” that takes place in the framework of the artist residencies leads them to connect corporeal experiences with ubiquitous digitally produced geolocated images. By drawing attention to their distortions and omissions, the artists use sound and the concept of soundscape ecology to heal our relationship with the natural environment. As Pallasmaa notes in “The Eyes of the Skin” (2013), in a world dominated by sight-centric experiences, we are no longer able to experience the landscape in any other way than through visual perception, often limited to contact with the black mirror of a phone screen; and communion with nature is becoming an increasing challenge. Therefore, the possibility of sensory perception of the surroundings is an important aspect of the exhibition. Based on fragments of visited places, the post-photographic experiments of the Doroszenko duo seamlessly connect with the created soundscapes.

In works born out of a longing for a pristine landscape, Ewa and Jacek Doroszenko point to how digital media have taken over our perception of reality. These musings have much in common with Paul Virillo’s concept of the “square horizon,” which is discussed through the interposition of multiple screens, in the context of war, conflicts, and international relations, as a metaphor for the fragmented, pixelated experience of contemporary life, influenced by the proliferation of screens and urbanization. In an environment tired of disposability and immediacy of gratification, the Doroszenko duo lean toward sustainable methods of producing their works, often recycling and sampling previously produced images and sounds to create an alternative landscape. Reflecting on the contemporary relationship with the landscape, the exhibition is the artists’ response to the growing hypercommunication, hyperproduction, and hyperactivity.

Natalia Barczyńska