Zbigniew Rybczyński – a world-famous author of animated films and video works, an Oscar winner and the first filmmaker to use High Definition television technology. His works combine spectacular experimentation and formal invention with a remarkable sense of humor and acute lyricism of the visual image. His art explores the common ground of the cinema, television and art. He is highly regarded by both critics and audiences.

On the visual image is a collection of Rybczyński’s film pieces and electronic works, accompanied by a series of sketches, drawings, calculations and graphs that altogether illustrate step-by-step the way of the creator of the “Fourth Dimension” to his new visual synthesis, in which he reconciles photographic realism of today’s media with all the depths of faking the real that we know from the great Renaissance Masters such as Piero della Francesca or Leonardo. His oeuvre testifies to one mission: attaining with his art such a degree of realism that would embrace modern technical possibilities at the same time responding to the current spiritual aspirations.

Rybczyński uses the film and electronic media to create visual images which are not merely reflections of the superficial but rather penetrate the truths hidden deep inside. This is what the artist considers indispensable to achieve the aim of representing – and first and foremost – understanding the real world. In his art Rybczyński has always been searching for free formal expression for the contents which he wished to represented. His original formal ideas have their source in the pure act of registering reality, yet they essentially overcome skin-deep realism and evolve to the form of systematic, conscious and creative employment of new technologies with the purpose of conveying all the artist’s syntheses and visions. The exhibition constitutes the first such comprehensive presentation of the artist’s method and his lifelong achievement.

The publication to accompany the exhibition will contain an extensive theoretical essay by the author himself, texts by Piotr Zawojski and Piotr Krajewski (the exhibition curator) along with comprehensive illustrative material.

Zbigniew Rybczyński, born 1949 in Lodz, an experimental film director, cameraman and lecturer. Having completed his secondary education at the School of Fine Arts in Warsaw, he worked for a period of time at the Miniature Film Study. In 1969 he went to study at the Lodz National Higher School of Film, Theatre and TV, where he was active in a vanguard group WARSZTAT FORMY FILMOWEJ. All his major animated films were produced at the SE-MA-FOR Study in Lodz, including Tango, for which he won the Oscar as the first Pole ever (1983). After moving to the United States, he turned to in video and High Definition techniques.

He earned great popularity and his nickname of “Big Zbig” authoring video clips to music by Simple Minds, Mick Jagger or John Lennon, and creating his Steps (1986), Fourth Dimension (1988) and Orchestra (1990), acclaimed for their innovativeness and striking virtuosity by critics and audiences around the world. Between 1987 – 1994 he was running his own studio, equipped with the then hi-tech HDTV technology.

Apart form the Oscar, Zbig has been distinguished with numerous awards and honors, e.g., Emmy, The Golden Gate Award at San Francisco Film Festival, Electronic Cinema Festival Awards in Tokyo and Montreaux, MTV, American Video Awards, Monitor Awards and the Billboard Music Video Award. His Orchestra received the Prix Italia, an award which is granted to TV productions for outstanding artistic value. He has taught at numerous universities: the Film School of Lodz, Columbia University New York, the Academy of Media Art (KHM) in Cologne. Presently, he holds a position of a visiting professor at Joshibi University of Art and Design in Tokyo.

Along with pursuing his artistic and academic career, he has been conducting research on the visual image and special effects, which enabled him to develop his own solutions in the field of electronic visualization. His applications have been employed in the film and TV industry and received several technical patents in America.

In 2008 Rybczyński received the Medal of The Cultural Merit “Gloria Artis” from the Polish Minister of Culture, and an Honorary Doctorate from the Lodz Film School, he was also presented with the coveted Katarzyna Kobro Award, established by the artistic community in Poland to honor exceptional artistic achievements.

Right now Rybczyński is engaged in a joint project with well-known Israeli writer Eli Barbur, which will involve the production of a two-hour-long film „The Short History of White People” (working title). The film is going to portray the fate of the Jewish people in the history of the European Civilization.