Igor Przybylski – The Bialystok Station

“Białystok Station”

During peak hours Białystok railway station is truly besieged. Masses of people from north-eastern end of Poland travel primarily to the south (Czeremcha, Warsaw, Łódź, Wrocław, Katowice, Cracow) and west (Poznań, Olsztyn, Gdańsk, Koszalin, Szczecin). For passengers from beyond the eastern border, Białystok is still a gate into the west.

The station’s building is filled with multitude of information. Travellers, assaulted by numerous advertisement boards, light-boxes and information tables retreat into the world of colour magazines or listen to music, trying to isolate themselves from the media clatter.

“Białystok Station” project is a multimedia intervention into the existing system of visual information. Three screens blended into station’s reality may become an interesting alternative for travellers waiting for their trains.

The first work – „Winter” – shows a small railways station on the German-Austrian border during a snowy winter. Three-month set of photographs from an internet camera, after a proper selection, was arranged in a daily sequence as a continuous projection. The intensive train traffic reflects the characteristic of a border station. White colour is dominant.

„122-045” is a video depicting one of the most characteristic Czech cargo locomotives on a small railway station. The engine was filmed in early spring in northern Czech Republic. An important element of this work is the sound emitted by the locomotive while moving with cargo, therefore sound effects are necessary here. However perfect sound quality is not essential, a minimal volume level, which would rise as the locomotive passes, is enough. Here, green is the most important colour.

“SBB” slideshow is a collection of summer photographs of Swiss national carrier’s traction vehicles, taken in southern Switzerland. All the most characteristic locomotives, which are currently driving Swiss trains are included here. The landscape and architecture are not without relevance here – often they are only seemingly a background for the rolling stock. Red reigns supreme here.

The works “122-045” and “SBB” are results of real journeys. “Winter” is a result of virtual journey, possible thanks to the internet.

These three colours-screens, picked out of the media mass, slightly changing the atmosphere and bringing closer distant regions of Europe, can proudly substitute colour magazines while waiting for the proper train to the long-desired destination…

Igor Przybylski

Igor Przybylski
born in 1974 in Warsaw
1997- 2002 – Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw
2002 – diploma under the guidance of professor Jaroslaw Modzelewski
since 2007 he has been collaborating with M2 [M squared]

www.przybylski.republika.pl