My work is an attempt to understand and regain images and feelings lost with the passage of time. It was inspired by the refusal of letting go of the not yet defined and therefore disturbingly active memories. I begin the process of reconstruction and evocation by intuitive recognition of something intimate or familiar in publicly available images of pop culture. The most crucial for this process is my childhood and my family home. The moments when I come across a picture and it suddenly brings me back to that time are extremely emotional. It seems important to save what these moments evoke and to redefine it. During the process of recreation, I bear in mind the subjectivity and illusoriness of these memory images and the fact that they are not permanent, but they are actually constantly transforming and derive from strong notions of pop culture. It is the situational context that transforms them as well as fleeting emotions and desires. Memory is no solid ground and memories should be challenged in order to see what is behind them. The initial trace of past experiences is a feeling and the accuracy of this feeling is crucial while encountering these memories. A part of the whole process is also my close family. I ask them to repeat some gestures, actions and movements. Their involvement is also a step towards a deeper understanding of the core of our mutual relations.

The collection is a brief representation of bigger projects presented in a nonchronological and nonsequential order. The situations I refer to have been taking place for 30 years in the same house.  The presented images come from 2010-2020.

translated by Agnieszka Czaplewska

bio 
Michał Bugalski (born 1985). The artist graduated in Photography at the University of Arts in Poznań, where he now works as assistant professor at the Photography Studio IV. Winner of the first prize at the Young Art Biennial Rybie Oko 6 (2011). Currently, Bugalski inquires into the realms of memory and the hidden presence of past experience in the perception of the surrounding reality; he invokes and amplifies the sensations through the medium he employs. 

education
2006 – 2011 – Photography, University of the Arts Poznan

solo exhibitions 
▪ Shifting and Confused Gusts of Memory, Galeria Piekary, Poznań 2019
▪ Sisters, Galeria MS, Piła, 2018
▪ Cave, Galeria Lokal_30, Warszawa, 2017 (co-created with Małgorzata Widomska)
▪ Pathosformeln, Galeria Piekary, Poznań, 2016 (co-created with Małgorzata Widomska)
▪ Recognition, Poznańska Galeria Nowa, 2015
▪ Capitoline Wolf, Galeria Nowa, Poznań, 7.11.2014
▪ Record, Galeria Nowa, Poznań, 14.11.2013
▪ Transference, The Format Contemporary Culture Gallery, Milan, 25.06.2013
▪ Everything Has Ceased, Galeria Piętro Wyżej, Katowice, 2012
(co-created with Małgorzata Widomska)

select group exhibitions
▪ Cathedral, Centrum Kultury Zamek, Poznań, 17.04.2015
▪ 6 × 3 = 25, Galeria Piekary, Poznań, 12.12.2014
▪ First Photography Meeting, A Praise to Diversity, Galeria Manhattan, Łódź, 16.12.2014
▪ Images That Last In Time, Kolektyw 1a, Poznań, 06.12.2014
▪ Like Funghi…, Galeria Fabryka Sztuki, Łódź, 24.10.2014
▪ The Grass Grows, Riehenstrasse 71, Basel, Switzerland, 15.06.2014
▪ The Fluidity of The Image, Galeria FF, Łódź, 6.06.2014
▪ Just Between Us, These Movies Are About Serious Stuff, Kolektyw 1a, Poznań, 31.05.2014
▪ Fisheye 7, Bałtycka Galeria Sztuki Współczesnej, Słupsk, 11.10.2013
▪ Reflexive Relations, 22.OFF Festival Bratislava, Pisztory Palace, Slovakia, 11.2013
▪ Visible Unspoken, Muzeum Sztuki Współczesnej, Minsk, 08.2013
▪ It’s time to say goodbye, part II, Changing Role Move Over Gallery, Naples, 2012
▪ It’s time to say goodbye, Changing Role Move Over Gallery, Palazzo Zenobio, Venice, 2011
▪ Draught III, Zachęta Sztuki Współczesnej, Szczecin, 2011
▪ 31. Maria Dokowicz Scholarship Contest, Galeria Miejska Arsenał, Poznań, 2011
▪ By Their Own Measure II, Muzeum Współczesne, Wrocław, 2011
▪ Fisheye 6 – Young Art Biennale, Bałtycka Galeria Sztuki Współczesnej, 2011
▪ Photo Diploma Award – post-contest exhibition, Stary Browar, Poznań, 2011
▪ Touch, Bochenska Gallery, Warsaw, 2011
▪ By Their Own Measure, Galeria PF01, Bratislava, Slovakia
▪ 781km, Dom Kutury Polskiej w Wilnie, Vilnius, Lithuania, 2010
▪ Strangeness, Dom Kutury Polskiej w Wilnie, Vilnius, Lithuania, 2010
▪ Sittcomm.award Finals, post-contest exhibition, Cracow, 2010
▪ Photography Factory I, Łódź Art Center, Łódź, 2010
▪ Indefinite 2009, Esplanade Building, Athens, Greece, 2009
▪ Unobvious 09, Stary Browar, Poznań, 2009
▪ Self-Portrait VII, Muzeum Regionalne, Stalowa Wola, 2008
▪ Warsaw Festival of Artistic Photography 2008, Galeria Sztuki Mediów ASP w Warszawie, Warsaw, 2008

contact
michalbugalski@gmail.com
+48606683448