Vital Stužka

Terra Incognita invites viewers to reconsider the idea of the unknown. Rather than referring to distant lands, the title suggests a particular way of seeing. The exhibition is not about geographic travel, but about an inward movement – toward aspects of reality and perception that often go unnoticed. Here, terra incognita appears as familiar places seen from a different perspective, outside habitual visual patterns.

The photographs in the exhibition depict seemingly recognizable subjects: landscapes, fragments of architecture, traces of human presence. However, the artist intentionally avoids documentary precision. These images do not aim to record a specific location or moment. Instead, they create an atmosphere – one that encourages immersion and transforms the viewer from a detached observer into an active participant in the visual experience.

An important role in this process is played by lith printing, an alternative darkroom technique. Unlike digital printing, the lith process introduces unpredictability and emphasizes the physical qualities of the image. Strong contrast, visible grain, deep shadows, and a distinctive surface texture shape not only the aesthetic appearance of the works, but also their meaning. Rather than presenting reality as stable and clearly defined, the images highlight its fragility and shifting character.

Through lith printing, photography moves away from the idea of being a neutral “window onto the world.” Instead, it becomes a material and self-contained space, dense with internal tension. The viewer does not grasp the image immediately; perception unfolds gradually, allowing time to notice subtle tonal and textural nuances.

In this project, space is no longer purely external. It functions as a reflection of inner states – memory, contemplation, a sense of silence or infinity. In this sense, terra incognita becomes a metaphor for an individual’s inner geography, where the boundary between outer reality and personal experience becomes increasingly fluid.

The exhibition Terra Incognita invites a slow and attentive engagement with the image. It is an invitation to pause, to step outside automatic ways of seeing, and to rediscover the familiar – not through recognition, but through perception.

Vital Stužka was born in 1988 in Minsk. He graduated from the Faculty of International Relations at Belarusian State University. His development as a visual artist took place outside formal art education and evolved through sustained independent practice and the study of analog photographic techniques and image theory.

Stužka works with analog photography. His projects explore the natural landscape as a visual structure rather than a narrative scene. Over time, his focus shifted from documenting the environment to transforming what is visible through interventions within the frame.

Multiple exposure has become a central technical and conceptual element in his practice. By layering several images within a single frame, he creates complex compositions in which real landscapes lose their fixed meaning and begin to resemble imagined spaces. His photographs therefore function not simply as documentation, but as constructions of a new visual reality.

In printing, Stužka works with the traditional silver gelatin process. He produces prints in formats ranging from 9 × 12 cm to 90 × 150 cm, adjusting scale according to the concept and character of each project. Lith developer is used in the darkroom process, producing distinctive contrast, rich texture, and varied tonal transitions. Each print created in this technique possesses unique material qualities.

His artistic practice reflects a consistent commitment to analog aesthetics as a way of critically engaging with contemporary digital visual culture and exploring the nature of photographic and cinematic imagery.