Adam Garnek

„(...) his fascination with tools and mechanical appliances began very early, when he lived with his parents in Kazimierza Wielka (Kielce area). He was interested in agricultural machinery, playing with scraps of sheet iron, metal pipes, and replacement parts of broken engines. His studies (1983 – 1988) at the Poznań State Higher School of Visual Arts, currently Academy of Fine Arts, did not change his predilection. Experimenting with various forms of artistic articulation he remained faithful to his earlier choices. Again, if more consciously and with an aim in mind, he played with metal and other material he collected during his frequent visits to junk yards. He was intrigued by transition, transfer, and motion. The first vehicle was made at the end of his studies. It was constructed for practical reasons – attached to a bicycle, it facilitated the transportation of heavy bits of steel from distant junk-yards to the school, where Garnek was working on his graduation project. Later on it came in handy when the artist transferred big-size elements of this work from the school to a square near the Poznań University of Technology, where the final exam was supposed to take place. There it became an important and integral part of a gigantic project entitled Changeable Systems, where the viewers, exerting their own muscles, were able to deconstruct and re-configure the mutual arrangement of the mobile forms (...)”