Mirror phaze by Marcin Kowalik in BWA Gallery in Zamość. Room 1. --------------- For the purpose of the next cycle, Mirror Phase, once again I had to free myself from the painting reality in which I had remained. That cycle is not only a story about a mirror, but it also raises the issue of the reception of art. Phenomena like interpreting a painting or projecting the viewer’s world on a contemplated painting (which had been brought up in The Unknown Kingdom) gained their new meaning when I treated a painting as a mirror. The mirror is not so much a pane reflecting the outside world as containing its own inner world. Contemplating our reflection in the mirror we are not able to say for sure to what extent it is our real silhouette and to what extent what we want to see. The starting point for the cycle was the conception of Alice in Wonderland but I soon realised that the mirror can be an allegory of a painting. These assumptions led me to come closer to and understand thoroughly many processes that accompany contemplating a painting.