Krystyna Ziach

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PORTFOLIO EXPOSITIES OVER HET WERK CV VIDEO CONTACT ENGLISH

www.krystynaziach.com Index Fluid Time Ephemeral Self Space of Imagination The Atomic Bomb Ephemeral Library Into the Void Dark Street Revisited Inner Eye Infinity A Spiral of Memory Aqua Obscura Archê The Fountain of Time A Chamber of Mirrors A Garden of Illusion Outer Space Japan Melancholy Metamorphosis H.M.P.A.H.H.H.A.M.Photo Sculptures Video Sculptures Editions Publications Books & Catalogues Documents & Press Work in Progress Collections Current

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Krystyna Ziach — Homage to Anselm Kiefer 2025,
from the series Homages, work in progress
Lambda c-prints, 87 x 158 cm

Ephemeral Self, 1985-2025
Je est un autre (I is another), Arthur Rimbaud

This frase by Arthur Rimbaud became a key idea for the series Ephemeral Self, which is composed of a selection of photoworks and photo and video sculptures from different series, made by Krystyna Ziach between 1985 -2025. In all of this works Krystyna Ziach is herself a performer, taking part in creating a very different series of work like: Metamorphosis, Melancholy, Japan, Outer Space, The Fountain of Time, Archê, Aqua Obscura, A Spiral of Memory, Infinity, Blue Core, The Atomic Bomb, Fluid Time, Homages.
"Je est un autre" is a grammatically incorrect French phrase by Arthur Rimbaud, meaning "I is another", or "The self is another", suggesting that the poet is separate from what he writes or perceives, highlighting the fractured self or the idea that he is a medium for something beyond himself. With these words, "I is another", Rimbaud suggests that the self is not a fixed, stable entity; instead, it is fluid, changeable, and even foreign to itself. This vision shatters the idea of a unified ego, hinting at the unconscious forces and multiple voices that shape human experience and artistic creation, proposing instead that the "I" is a collection of multiple, sometimes contradictory identities.
In the series Metamorphosis Krystyna Ziach started a coherent reaearch on body-performance in dialogue with monumental by herself painted backgrounds. Her work was not intended to reveal her own identity, but rather to research the expressive energy of the female body and, in doing so, to push back the frontiers between photography and painting. This series is a prelude to the later series as Melancholy and Japan. Her travel to Japan was for her an inspiration to make a series of works in which she played with her identity, performing as a Kabuki actress in the series Japan or as a part of nature in a performance made in the Imperial Gardens in Tokyo, in the series Infinity. In her later works, as in the series Archê or Blue Core, she incorporated photographs with parts of her face, hair or back, images which are almost abstract, to the photo and video sculptures. In the installation The Fountain of Time, Ziach used a photograph of her own face with water streaming down, situated next to the rusty sheet, which underlines the ephemerality of existence. In the series Aqua Obscura and in A Spiral of Memory, she showed a pool in which a series of photos from her own archive, including photos of herself floating in the water which was covered with an infinite, dotted pattern of algae and leaves. The photos used have been removed from their context as carriers of a certain identity. A photo within a photograph emits a doubling effect that regresses inward. It marks off at least two instants in time, contained and containing. The series Fluid Time is largely based on photographs from her earliest youth and has a strongly autobiographical nature. Each photo with its moment frozen in time constitutes a kind of time capsule. Ziach took a number of photos from her archive as a starting point and multiplied them, as it were ‘endlessly’, to suggest infinity and the perpetuity of time in which the personal seems to disappear. In Homage to Anselm Kiefer she referred to his painting, reflecting her admiration of his work. The “Ephemeral Self” refers to the concept that human identity is not a fixed, permanent entity, but rather a transient, constantly changing, and impermanent experience. It suggests that “I” or “me” is a temporary, shifting construct, heavily influenced by memory, emotions, and external circumstances.