Cezary Klimaszewski ‘boor’

exhibition opening: 2 October 2026 (Friday), 7:00 p.m.
curatorial tour of the exhibition: 3 October 2026 (Saturday), 4:00 p.m.
language: opening in Polish, Polish Sign Language interpreting by Jolanta Gromada
exhibition runs until 25 October 2026 (Tue–Sun, noon–7:00 p.m.)
free entry
curator: Piotr Saran

●
boor
Brando
drill*
forest**
gift
brand
bardo*
orb*

boor [bear, churl] and KURTZ* have led us directly from Marlon Brando.
They’ve led us out. Into the space between the traces of individual memories and connotations of K.*. From the moment when, as a child, he sat in front of the TV and watched the film ‘The Young Lions’ (fragments of which we can watch here as well) to the moment when he himself records a child who takes a running start and throws a black sphere/ball. Up.

K. is watching.
K. is looking for him in his memory.

The word ‘boor’, with its literal meaning, imposes specificity on us.
Similar to what we can feel when we hear ‘bear/churl’.
It forces a wider self-opening or causes self-closure. Exit.
Character study.
Sketches contained in different media.

Boor surrounds us with items/objects/traces/digital footprints. We coat ourselves in the boor space. We coat It in our imagination. We coat It in our memory. We build our character study in the bullet hole in the ground, on the wall of a submarine, on the wall of a shelter, on the surface of the sphere or in the disappearing bullet wounds in the body in the last scene of the film.

Objects/studies by K. are ‘ready-made items’ that, through rescaling, immobilisation, interference with the structure, modifications etc., become dysfunctional. They lose their original meanings. They are now carriers of traces of their new roles (new visibility).
Including Brando’s traces.

Film scenes are treated similarly, and reversing one of the scenes and playing it backwards causes Brando’s character to be cinematically resurrected.
boor > < sediment > < time

An element that is important for perceiving and reading KURTZ is also ‘sediment’.
Sediment on the surface of objects/items exposed in ‘boor’.
Sediment in the memory of each and every one of us.
Sentiment.
__________
*‘K.’ – Cezary Klimaszewski
*‘orb’ – (English) sphere, ball, an artefact often taking a circular form
*‘boor’ (Flemish) – drill
*‘bardo”– a transitional state between death and birth
*KURTZ – Walter E. Kurtz – the character played by Marlon Brando in the 1979 film ‘Apocalypse Now’.

(Piotr Saran)

**The word ‘bór’ appearing in the original is a type of coniferous forest, usually a pine forest, growing on less fertile soils. It sounds almost identical to the English word ‘boor’ and sounds similar to the Polish word ‘gbur’, which means ‘boor, churl’ (translator’s note).

What happens in our heads when a take, a scene or a character from a film stays with us for years? Do we still remember the film itself or rather our own transformed version of it, built from connotations and recurring images?

The exhibition ‘boor’ by Cezary Klimaszewski emerges from precisely this experience. The key to deciphering the project’s foundations lies in the figure of Marlon Brando, a legendary actor who has fascinated the artist since childhood.

The roles Brando created had a significant impact on Klimaszewski’s sensitivity and mindset. His formative years were fundamentally shaped by Brando’s iconic portrayal of Christian Diestl in ‘The Young Lions’ (directed by Edward Dmytryk) – a German officer who initially embraces Nazi ideals but, over time, as he brutally confronts the reality of war, undergoes a profound moral crisis. Another character of equal importance is Colonel Kurtz, embodying the dark side of human nature and imperialism in ‘Apocalypse Now’ (directed by Francis Ford Coppola), a film inspired by Joseph Conrad’s novella ‘Heart of Darkness’. These are the characters the artist returns to in order to examine what remains of them in his memory and how they function in his consciousness today, within a new reality.

The project ‘boor’ fits into the artist’s way of combining a material, almost structural form with an image, a film and personal connotations. It is a multi-layered intermedial installation.

At its core is a five-minute found-footage film. Fragments of ‘The Young Lions’ are combined with material recorded by the artist. It is an attempt to recreate a dream Klimaszewski had while working intensively on the project. The film consists of four minisections whose composition reflects the fragmentary nature of the dreams that were etched in the artist’s memory. Nonetheless, the scene that concludes the étude reverses what happens in Dmytryk’s film. The main character, who dies in the original, is instead resurrected rather than remaining underwater. Is this a moral awakening, a reversal of death, a waking-up or something else? The artist does not provide an unambiguous answer.

The film is a central point of the installation; paradoxically, however, to watch it we have to begin the tour somewhat from the end, discovering the emerging visual and semantic motifs that create the context for the film. In a small space built specifically for this purpose, there are three objects: two submarines and a steel structure resembling a shelter – you can look inside it through spyholes. A small figure emerges, resembling the image of being trapped inside one’s own mind, the situation when racing thoughts begin to act like a physical force that splits the head apart. Further on, we encounter a tunnel leading to the room where the titular film is shown.

The exhibition ‘boor’ cannot be summed up in one story. It leaves room for different connotations. References to works that touch upon the complexity of human nature, including its dark recesses, rouse the viewer from torpor. It is also the artist’s attempt to enter his own mind and examine what lies within the racing thoughts and plots that emerge there.

Strict, heavy forms and an interest in structures resembling military objects have been present in Cezary Klimaszewski’s output for years. The artist works with spatial objects, installations, graphics and video, often using items and materials associated with technology, architecture or the military. In ‘boor’, this approach is clearly visible: an interesting form, brutalist elements made of slightly corroded steel and a film étude with its original soundtrack. It appears to be a minimalist installation, but in fact, it is a semantically complex work worth slow looking.

Cezary Klimaszewski – intermedia artist, author of spatial objects, installations, site-specific works, graphics and videos. In his projects, he often creates diverse and reinterpreted historical contexts that prompt viewers to confront them actively. Klimaszewski graduated from the Faculty of Arts at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University (UMCS). He defended his diploma project in the Intaglio Printing Studio of Professor Zdzisław Niedźwiedź under the supervision of Professor Artur Popek. In 2012, he was awarded a postdoctoral degree in fine arts – graphics by the Faculty of Graphic Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. He is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Intermedia at the Institute of Fine Arts, Faculty of Arts, at UMCS in Lublin.

He has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions, including at KONT Gallery (Jan Gryka’s project ZANA 11); White Gallery in Lublin; Kronika Gallery in Bytom; the Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw; Otwarta Pracownia in Kraków; Galeria Labirynt in Lublin; International Graphic Triennial, Kochi, Japan; Grand Prix at the 16th Lessedra World Art Print Annual – Mini Print 2017, Sofia, Bulgaria; BWA Bydgoszcz; The Petach Tikva Museum Of Art, Israel; Open City, Lublin; Mediations Biennale, Poznań; BWA Wrocław, BWA Wozownia, Toruń; First Prize ‘Graphic of the Year 98’, Lublin Castle Gallery; Guangzhou International Exlibris and Mini Print Biennial, China; Galeria Bielska BWA, Bielsko-Biała; Silesian Museum, Katowice; lokal_30, Warsaw; International Mini Print Biennial, Cluj, Romania.

exhibition coordinator: Dominika Żurawska
graphic design: Cezary Klimaszewski
graphic development: Florentyna Nastaj
3D visualisation of the exhibition design: Adam Oroń
production: Rafał Garula, Jarosław Mitura, Adam Oroń
promotion, text on exhibition: Alicja Gieleta