Beyond the Body is an ongoing art project devoted to sport as a cultural phenomenon developed by Tomasz Gudzowaty over the past few years.
In a constant quest for the true essence of the phenomenon, the artist abandons the mainstream of institutionalized sport, largely covered by media and focused on celebrity status. He heads off on a journey to the outer limits towards various disciplines: those ancient and those recently invented, those deeply rooted in local traditions and those inspired by the contemporary global culture. All of those are imbued with the same core values – freedom, victory, and spiritual sensation attained with rigorous discipline of body and mind.
The project was first revealed to the public in 2007 at an exhibition titled 'Sports Features', which traveled around several cities in Poland and Europe. The current exhibition consists largely of recent works, including those that won awards from World Press Photo, Pictures of the Year, and Best of Photojournalism, all prestigious international photo competitions. Viewing them together with photographs taken a few years ago, visitors get the opportunity to trace the evolution of Tomasz Gudzowaty’s style and visual thinking.
Tomasz Gudzowaty, born 1971 in Warsaw, is one of the preeminent photographers of Poland today. He uses film-based black and white photography as his medium, placing a premium on what is disappearing and falling into oblivion, cast into the margins, outside the mainstream. He focuses on human emotions, passions, and choices. He aims in capturing the magic of the moments setting an invitation for viewer to reflect on the changing human condition, and on the values he deems all-important: finding one's passion and pursuing it with whole heart and single mind. He conveys his message through sublime, carefully thought, and highly aesthetic yet simple pictures. He photographs reality as he finds it, and, in a sense, he constructs this reality himself according to his feelings.