Bodily presence in the world conditions all experience and perception. Does an image have a body of its own and experience the world? On what principles does it exist and what does it want from us? The book "Eyes of the painting" arose from a need to reflect on the "nature" of the image. It is based on a dialogue between the artist and the curator, a multi-threaded flow of experience and reflection. Conversation becomes a method of collaborative work and a cognitive medium, triggering an impulse to shift perspectives and penetrate the fabric of meanings and significance. A sensitive and attentive exchange resulted in content that goes beyond the analysis of the artist's work. Touching upon universal aspects of existence: loss, illness, heritage, and relationships with the material, organic layer of the world, it becomes a story about change and its acceptance. The book consists of a collection of essays composed according to the idea of a rhizome, with a non-linear structure and density of meaning. Individual chapters are autonomous, yet at the same time stem from each other and connect into contextual bulbs, open to new readings and interpretations. The image needs to turn in on itself. It needs to know itself and its author. "The Eyes of the painting" perfectly combines autobiographical threads, a thorough analysis of the artist's work, critical reflection, and an artistic manifesto. The central thread is not only an attempt to transform trauma into art - every experience (pain, loss, illness, migration) finds its material trace in an image, an object, a gesture - but also a calm observation about the changes that are an inherent element of existence. (...) The intriguing, hybrid combination of the language of essay, poetry, documentary, and artist's notebook broadens the reception of Szostak's work, shifting the reflection toward symbolic and philosophical considerations, where the work is not limited to a specific object but constitutes a multi-set of events, processes, and experiences. (Professor Elżbieta Jabłońska, Ph.D.)
