Michał Szlaga's Photographs of Gdańsk Shipyard at Interzone Photoartgallery

Interzone Photoartgallery in Rome presents a solo exhibition of Polish photographer Michał Szlaga (b. 1978, Gdańsk), documenting the gradual dismantling of the Gdańsk Shipyard—the birthplace of the Solidarność movement and a symbol of the end of the 20th century. The shipyard, built in the late 19th century, employed 15,000 workers in 1980. Szlaga's photographs, taken between 2004 and 2013, capture the site's monumental industrial architecture and its decay. The exhibition includes wall-mounted photos, slides, a video, and a limited-edition book containing about 300 images. Szlaga lived and worked in a portion of the shipyard allocated to artists and curators in 2002. Notable works include a portrait of a sandblasting worker resembling an astronaut, a red whirlpool during a ship launch, and a ransacked reading room for workers, evoking historical upheaval. The series reflects on humanity's harsh treatment of industrial architecture deemed obsolete after the end of the short century.