Afterimage

The works of Wojciech Fangor now command staggering prices – with auction records exceeding seven million zloty – and are housed in some of the most prestigious collections of contemporary art around the world, including MoMA in New York. It was Fangor who once wrote: “The circle exists as a geometric figure in nature, history, and belief.” The circle – a symbol of infinity, perfection, and divinity – has also served as the inspiration for the photographic series by Juliusz Sokołowski, to be exhibited in 2025 at the Teutonic Castle in Świecie.

The choice of location is far from accidental. The Teutonic Order’s architectural philosophy, spiritual discipline, and geometric symbolism – all reflecting the idea of divine order – provide a unique context for this exhibition. As a spiritual and militaristic brotherhood, the Order structured its world around order, hierarchy, and mission. The circle, as a form without beginning or end, embodied the very essence of their cosmology and belief.

In the work of Sokołowski – one of Poland’s most insightful photographers of architecture – the motif of the circle emerges not from sacred artefacts but from the overlooked fragments of the everyday: remnants, debris, and incidental forms found at the intersection of nature and culture. Through photography, the artist restores meaning to what has been discarded or ignored, elevating the banal to the spiritual. Here, the photograph becomes an afterimage – a visual echo of what has passed, yet remains; a trace of presence within absence. The line between documentation and revelation blurs, guiding the viewer through territories of op-art, sfumato, and symbolic realism.

The exhibition presents 13 works. Twelve square compositions (1 × 1 metre) symbolically refer to the Twelve Apostles – messengers, interpreters of the world, and spiritual guides. The thirteenth – a monumental circular composition measuring 3 × 3 metres – becomes an icon: an afterimage of Christ, the focal point of both spiritual and geometric structure of the cosmos.

For centuries, the Teutonic Castle in Świecie has lacked enduring material evidence of its past. Through this exhibition, it gains a new reference point. Afterimage becomes a foundation for symbolic reconstruction: rather than attempting to restore lost collections, the show constructs spiritual and visual equivalents – made from memory, light, and void.

This is not just an exhibition. It is an act of presence within absence. A dialogue between historical time and the now. An attempt to inscribe a contemporary gesture into the void once occupied by sacred history.