POLISH SUMO
(2007-2008)

The POLISH SUMO series corresponds in a way to my previous photographic series of ballet dancers named SCHOOL The starting point for both sets was the human body and the observation of its performance in extreme conditions.
I was intrigued by sumo wrestling the very moment I heard from a friend of mine who is a sports journalist that the discipline is increasingly popular in our country and that Polish sumo wrestlers win a great deal of medals at world and European championships. I felt a desire to see for myself how our Polish champions perform in this strictly Japanese sports. I wanted to learn what it means to them; what kind of qualities and skills are required, if one bout can last only a few seconds; what is so fascinating about it?
My first visit to a Polish sumo wrestling competition spurred me to take a deeper interest in Japanese aesthetics and its simplicity, irregularity and ephemerality, which have been always dear to me in my artistic endeavours.