Kacper Bijoś - NEGATIVE SPACE

Negative Space is an attempt to capture a moment of suspension – between past and present, between function and form. The starting point is the vanishing practice of constructing scarecrows – figures of agrarian everyday life that are now systematically disappearing from the landscape.

These makeshift silhouettes, totems of local folklore that have so far existed on the margins of aesthetics, are reinterpreted by the artist. The author creates structures and places on them designs by Alicja Tkaczyk, made in the spirit of trashion – the creative reuse of materials – which resonate with the concept of redefinition and transformation.

In the face of intensified cultivation and the ongoing modernization of crop protection methods, the traditional forms of scarecrows are losing their practical meaning. Their deterrent function gives way to a new one – symbolic and reflective. Their presence in the landscape becomes merely an echo of past practices, while also drawing attention to the evolving relationship between humans and nature.
The artist seeks to create a space for confrontation between the old and the new, as well as to assign new contexts to symbols rooted in cultural memory.

NEGATIVE SPACE, Instytut Fotografii Fort w Warszawie, 2025, fot. Adam Rudolf Karpiński

wernisaż wystawy NEGATIVE SPACE podczas otwarcia Opolskiego Festiwalu Fotografii OFF15, 2025, Fot. M. WĘGRZYN

This videoart is a part of the first edition of the Negative Space series. It depicts the process of creating and photographing redefined scarecrow objects. The artist’s created structures are complemented by pieces designed by invited designers - Mariya Tratsiakova and Paweł Kaźmierowski.