“I observe people, it gives me energy to create”

Luiza Poreda, 6 March 2021

Tomasz Koclęga became famous in Poland, but also in India, China and South Korea, thanks to his monumental realizations in public space. In his art work, he tries to talk about matters that affect us as a human species, which is why the presented content becomes universal and understandable to recipients from all over the world. For several years, the artist has been creating intimate bronze sculptures, which we present in the Online Gallery of the Art in House Auction House. In April, one of Tomasz Koclęga’s major projects will be up at the 2nd Auction of Collector’s Sculpture at Art in House.

 

Tomasz Koclęga is a Polish sculptor, a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. Since 2009, the artist has been working as a sculpture lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice (Poland).

 

“I like to watch people”

Through deformed characters, the “theater of gestures” he uses, Tomasz Koclęga tries to express human emotions – those that result from his own experiences and observations. As the artist says in an interview with the Art in House Auction House, in the creative process he is to a certain extent dependent on observing others.

– I don’t copy the situations I see, I just watch people and it gives me energy to act. I take up universal topics. They are perceived in an understandable and legible way in various cultures around the world. I show people most often in unreal poses, because I do not mean to reproduce reality, art has not dealt with this for a long time. Rather, I mean building certain emotions. Of the theories on art and other aesthetic issues, I think the idea of ​​emotionalism is closest to me. I believe that if these emotions are not present in the creative process, work cannot convey them. There is no power to communicate – there is no emotion, explains Tomasz Koclęga.

It is thanks to these emotions that the artist’s artistic activity is similar to religion for artist.

 

– I am not a religious person, but I deeply believe in myself and what I do. My works arise from the inner need to share, but it is also a certain charge of energy in me that will explode while working on an art work. If there is no such energy in a work of art, the viewer will not pay attention to it – he says.

“Making sculptures in urban space give me a sense of fulfillment”

As a sculptor, Tomasz Koclęga is extremely interested in the relationship of the art work with the environment, and the presentation in public spaces is for him the most important form of artistic activity. A dozen or so years ago, the artist decided that showing works only in art galleries determines a relatively low reception, and the presented art works reach the same, specific group of art enthusiasts.

– I have always wanted to present and communicate my works quite broadly, and until recently the closed circle of gallery visitors was very specific to me. For this reason, I decided to create something that, on the one hand, will function in the urban space, and on the other hand, will not be just a sculpture in the park, but something extraordinary – says Koclęga.

The first such realization was the work entitled “Dream” in 2006 – the sculpture shows a large human head, about 5 meters high and the same length. The object has been placed on the tree.

– Looking from today’s perspective, I started a technically difficult project. Its implementation gave me energy for further research and activities – says the sculptor.

As he says, confrontation in an open, urban space gives, above all, the possibility of an authentic dialogue with a very diverse, partially random recipient – a recipient who is not necessarily interested in art, but always reacts to what he sees. These reactions are often much more open and spontaneous than among art gallery audiences, the artist believes.

– My works, which appeared one after another in the urban space, not only in Poland, echoed widely. I think that the peak of interest was the installation of the work entitled “Fleeting”, which was placed at the roundabout in Rybnik. It is a sculpture depicting a man in a pose known from gymnastic exercises, known as the “swallow”. She is also known for children’s games of pretending to be an airplane. This sculpture is a contextual work, created in the vicinity of a sports airport, hence its form. In a broader, ideological layer, it refers to human dreams, desires, strivings to make these dreams come true – such as the human dream of flying unfulfilled for thousands of years – says the sculptor.

 

The sculpture “Fleeting” attracted a huge wave of criticism and commentary. During the first 24 hours, it had as many as 200,000 views.

– Taking into account the size of the city Rybnik is, it appears that statistically every inhabitant of this city has read the article at least once. Then the work appeared in all local media, then nationwide. Interestingly, everyone discussed, but no one ever asked me a question. About two months later, a local journalist called me. On the other hand, the discussion and all this commotion around work took place outside of me – says the artist.

The work has certainly been noticed. And this is what Tomasz Koclędze cares about. He likes when his works evoke emotions.

– After the media frenzy, which lasted about a year, I received a publication from the city on many issues in the field of culture. The city mentioned two important events that took place in Rybnik at that time: a concert by Rod Steward and the installation of my sculpture – Koclęga continues.

As he says, activities in the city space give him a sense of fulfillment, arouse creative tension and energy for further work. For him, it is also a challenge, a certain game or a gamble with the recipient, because you never know how a given work will be received.

 

A spark that ignites the imagination

For several years now, Tomasz Koclęga has been creating small bronze sculptures. This new approach to format was unusual for the artist, as were large-format works placed in urban space.

– I wanted these works to be energetic and have that “something”. Such a spark that ignites the imagination. At the same time, I try to include in them my observations about people and what is universal in them, common to us as a species – the sculptor explains.

As he said, he tries to make his works understandable not only here and now, but also that they have a universal message, and that they do not only refer to current events or the socio-political situation.

– I am looking for areas of human activity that are in some sense inscribed in our society. Such an example will be a series of works with stones covered with gold. These are works about desire, the need to possess, and acquiring the most expensive and seemingly necessary objects. In this series, a stone covered with gold is an example of something that we strive for, which is very valuable and at the same time empty inside – he explains.

Another example is a series of sculptures with glass spheres, or spheres in general, which are a symbol of the ideal, striving to be perfect, creating an optimal situation. It is similar with the glass cubes present in Koclęga’s work, which are for him a symbol of the ideal.

– I would like the accumulation of my thoughts, expressed in form, including the theater of gestures, to be as strong here as in large works. I fulfill myself professionally because it turns out that many people enter into an authentic dialogue with my sculptures, asking for inspiration, a message, and wanting to learn as much as possible about them. This vivid reception gives me an even greater motivation to create – says Koclęga.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Small format – new horizons

The artist organized his first exhibition of his chamber sculptures in Asia, where he had already gained recognition for his outdoor projects.

– After the presentation of the first series of seven small bronze works in South Korea, they were all sold right away. During the exhibition, people came up to me all the time to talk about what I create. Thanks to these conversations, I looked at these sculptures from a new perspective – he says.

It turned out that the small format gives the sculptor a much greater scope for action, because it is possible to realize things that cannot be done in large format.

– In the technical aspect, new horizons have opened for me. While it is easy to make a 10 cm glass sphere or cube, it is harder to imagine the possibility of making such a sphere the size of, say, a meter. Such seemingly simple differences, resulting from the scale, open up a little wider field for composing and expressing oneself – he says.

The artist considered the use of attributes, such as a cube or a sphere, to be one of the most important features of his work in the scope of sculptures with a small format.

– I almost always try to combine them so that the relationship between the character and the object and the gesture build a story, that this narrative gives room for dialogue and that the recipient himself has the opportunity to build a story in his own way based on universal symbols. This universality is usually confined to a given culture, but some of them, such as a ball, gold or stone, are recognizable all over the world – explains Tomasz Koclęga.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We would like to thank the Artist for the interview.

We invite you to the Online Art in House Gallery, where you can find sculptures by Tomasz Koclęga

We also encourage you to participate in the 2nd Collector’s Sculpture Auction, which will take place on Friday, April 23, 2021 at the Art in House Auction House. In the catalog of this art auction you can find one of the extraordinary art works by Tomasz Koclęga.