Five years ago I wrote that, although at first glance it appears that F. Kurzewski’s works  represent the genre of Science Fiction, this opinion has to be discarded. He did not and he does not create comic books about the future, and he does not illustrate stories that take place in the times to come. These drawings/ paintings show loneliness, alienation and isolation from the environment, and require in-depth consideration. Speaking about Kurzewski’s ‘drawings/paintings’ we actually must use this double terminology. Some works are obviously drawings, executed with amazing expertise with marker pens of different width; some of them more or less used up so that the lines they produce come in various blacks and greys. Yet there are also drawings coloured with pencil crayons, paints, felt-tip pens, and then (or perhaps earlier) scratched and scraped, brightened and darkened, so that such works can hardly be referred to as drawings. A new medium is emerging and it is likely to become more and more sophisticated and advanced, because F. Kurzewski does not shy away from working with the computer, something which can be seen in particular in his works related to architecture.

Architecture indeed.  At the exhibition, we could see several architectural designs located in specific settings. Probably the oldest one was the design for the central area of the Ursynów neighbourhood [in Warsaw, Poland] located along Indira Ghandi Street, created as part of the ‘Heart of the District’ series carried out at the Department of Urban Design and Rural Landscape at the Architecture Department of the Warsaw University of Technology. I am not sure whether the district residents and authorities have seen this project, but it is likely that they would all be really surprised to see the bold forms in the design. The author did not think that a building should be a rectangular cuboid, and that right angles would be the best option for each structure. The lines tossed onto the paper in a fanciful way hold a promise of a whole new landscape in the vacant space at the intersection of Ghandi and Rosoła Streets. It is possible to believe that the Author was driven by a desire to create such a landscape. On the other hand, his diploma project, completed under the supervision of Professor Ewa Kuryłowicz, is a floating, oceanic city, with forms known from shipyards rather than from construction sites on firm ground. Perhaps this is the future of urban planning after we have covered all the accessible and inaccessible parts of the land with development projects.

There are two more hotels in the gallery of architectural projects. One of them, drawn with Arab countries in mind, is designed in the style of seven-star hotels. They are typically characterised by an overabundance of detail, and if we want to compete in this category of architectural race, we must not ignore this characteristic feature. This, however, does not mean that anything goes and that nothing is evaluated in aesthetic terms. Looking at this hotel, we can see that, fortunately, the multiplicity of details has not affected the quality of the design. It is simply a response to a specific request, which may be forthcoming. The second hotel is the complete opposite. The location is somewhere near the Arctic Circle, the expressiveness of form is minimal, which does not mean it is not there at all but rather that the structure does not interfere with the landscape. The building is partly hidden underground, the conceptual design corresponds to the severity of the local climate, and the ice rocks are part of the exposition. We can reach the hotel using dog sleds, which does not mean that vehicles with skidding systems cannot enter.

The architectural projects make reference to drawings/paintings. Kurzewski draws and paints, emphasising what is important to him in the here and now. One could say that this is an architectural approach. The trick here involves a change in the proportions between the elements of the landscapes presented. Because the landscapes in most cases comprise only objects and people, the change in the proportions reflects the relations between them, yet contrary to architecture, here it is people who are outgrown by the objects. This conveys a truth about the fate of man, with difficulty, yet possibly also with curiosity, travelling the world full of surprises, challenged by circumstances to assume grand tasks, quite lonely because, while wandering across the painted landscapes, he does not have many companions. Of all the works by Kurzewski, this is perhaps most clearly seen when a tiny man standing in front of a Gothic cathedral is barely noticeable, merging with the faintly outlined background and floor, rather like a greyish mist with silhouettes of scaffolding and not the real surroundings of a cathedral. The latter obviously stands out, yet its portal does not look like a masterpiece of Gothic engineering. It has been turned into a serious piece of scenography, not theatrical but lifelike – because of its domination over the man standing in front with his head turning upwards. Seemingly oblivious to his presence, the force personified in the portal is preoccupied with its own affairs, setting darkness or light to parts of the architectural structure rather at will, using the whole palette of colours to emphasise whatever it wants, shaking the gargoyle protruding towards the tiny visitor.

Such a description of Kurzewski’s architectural works could mean that the thing referred to as composition is missing.  But no, Kurzewski completed the excellent school of drawing at the Department of Architecture of the Warsaw University of Technology, so even if he wanted to conceal them, the rules of composing the layout and creating the drawing can be discerned. By reference to the earliest period when that school of architectural drawing first emerged, and most definitely to the period immediately after the war, indeed I would even say that these are classical rules. In those times drawings were made to show the structure of the objects represented, and to highlight the contours, essence and shape of the overlapping silhouettes.

One could say that some of these qualities were indeed heralded by his hand-made drawings, which consequently, as autonomous works of art, were precursors to the New Architectures drawn by Kurzewski. These designs diverge from the well-tested aesthetics of Versailles towards a new aesthetics, where the houses do not have traditional cuboid shapes, and the art of landscaping combines all elements into a harmonious whole.

These landscapes at times resemble junkyards with parts of various endeavours which failed to take off from Earth, or an abandoned military base with relics of cargo aircraft mixed with shipwrecks. That which could be recognised as natural landscape, in Kurzewski’s art appears in the distant background or in separate works. But we do get massive Teflon flowers, massive tubes, massive screws and clamps, complicated pipe connections, and coils abandoned by the roadside. One might wonder about sheeting spread over parts of the area as if these were some work sites – but what kind? Mechanics (scavengers?) appear rarely, there are no signs of hard work, neither can we expect shower or sun because we will not see clouds or the sky from which it could rain or shine. The perspective, distances and relations between objects seem rather unimportant in these works by Kurzewski. Apparently if we took something away or added something, it would be of little consequence, as happens in a yard with machine parts about which we know nothing for sure: what they are designed for, or why they have been or will be built. All this is a modern version of Piranesi who certainly packed the staircases in his drawings with something different because he did not know the objects used today. Those attending the exhibition in October could also watch an immersive VR film produced by S.C.Projects as well as animations by Mateusz Nowak. As a result, the works by F. Kurzewski came alive. This showed another quality of his artistic works, i.e. the intellectual consistency and autonomy of the creative pursuits whose manifestations are harmoniously connected. Once his drawings were transformed into tapestry pictures, then colour gained more importance and three-dimensional works appeared, followed by modest sculpture and elaborate architecture and finally a book, published by the Melanż company, located in Warsaw on (what a nice coincidence!) Bird-of-Paradise Street (ul. Rajskich Ptaków). The Kingdom Tales, according to the Author, present ‘The Kingdom of Fortunto, [which has been] created in my images, [and] is an expression of the world of fantasy. You are invited to explore my universe, and look for your own interpretations and impressions’. The book brings to mind Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, yet Filip Kurzewski follows his own path, creating different characters that experience different adventures and pursue different goals. Despite appearances, the book content is not esoteric. One might risk a claim that this art, in the best sense of the word, represents the environment of people as we know them today, even though in the book they are only imaginary and represent tomorrow’s tastes, but they also hold no aspiration to dissociate from other human beings. I believe this is where it comes from, the manner of writing and drawing like in comic books, or like in MTV-style stage design, because these are the forms of communication that will best appeal to large audiences in the future, just like real art, just like what Filip Kurzewski holds in store for us.