Tourists

Catalogue for the exhibition of photographs by Martin Parr

Tourism colors our lives, transports us to unknown areas and gives the illusion of an alternative, better reality. We dream of traveling, we benefit from the availability of cheap airlines and ease of movement. We like to brag about our travels, we spend long moments on the best vacation shots so they can be included in our online albums. We were there, it was great, it was beautiful! Another destination ticked off, thrown into the collection of pleasant experiences. Because why mention all these inconveniences, or even the torments associated with traveling, sightseeing or paying with local currencies?

We go to the place and as soon as possible we want to touch this otherness, become part of the place we visit, enter into local rituals. But even equipping yourself with the best folders and bestselling bedekers does not work immediately.

This theme of the paradox of the vacationer, the painful irony that is inscribed in the situation of arriving somewhere for a while, became the subject of the works of Martin Parr, an outstanding visual artist who portrayed various forms of travel in his album “Small world”. In it we will find not only classic travel shots and “spots”, but also all the baggage that mass tourism brings: the “production” of tons of garbage, the unification that takes away the character of the towns, the loss of thinking about the comfort of the inhabitants who become hostages of the tourist seasons.

All these phenomena have become the subject of a libretto by Konrad Imiela, in which musical stylistics change as quickly as the reviewed vacation photos on Instagram. There will be songs from Broadway productions, hip-hop, ethnic music and pop hits, all in compositions and songs by Grzegorz Rdzak.