Gazeta Krakowska, poland
10/14/2003 , By Magda HUZARSKA-SZUMIEC
An equipment to take photos is not important. Important is what is in your head, in your heart and what do you want to convey ? said an artist photographer, coming from India, Diwan Manna, whose exhibition titled "After the Turmoil", we can see in Paszkowka Palace nearby Cracow.
Diwan Manna?s photographies are not typical. He does not documentate the world, reality, which he sees but he creates paintings out of it, referring to symbolists? painting. Some secret penetrates through those incredibly suggestive, as regards colours excellently composed works, allowing for multiple interpretations. There we see lying woman, whose stretched body could herald laziness. When we have a closer look, we perceive certain anxiety striking from whole picture. It is visible that it is not voluntarily assumed position; the woman was forced to do that.
?Violence concerns my personal experience. I was born in Punjab, which was many times attacked with violence, rapes in result of political changes. I was in many other countries, where those kinds of things were happening as well. Women experience them the worst, as they are fully dependent on men in those areas. Men go to war and die, women stay completely alone?, was saying Diwan Manna, who named one of the photographic series, presented on the exhibition, ?Violence?.
The second series of pictures, concerning life and death, is titled ?Shores of Unknown?, and third one ?After the Turmoil?. Latter contains photos made under the observation of the world in medias, which mainly feed on tragic events. However Diwan Manna?s works are respected all over the world, for example in Great Britain, France, Germany, they are not gloomy or depressing. From each of them hits a flicker of hope, which helps to look optimistically in future. That is why one wants to commune with them.
?In United States where I live, photographic art has become very popular. People buy pictures and hang them in their houses?, says the owner of the palace in Paszkowka, who wants to restore a function of an art center to this beautiful building by organizing exhibitions. ?In the past, when palaces were under aristocracy?s charge, they were attracting artists. I want that to happen again?, adds Jan Oleksy.
