PRIMA MATERIA

Wardrobe Stylist/Creative Director/Photographer/Accessory Designer: Dominik Kupka

1. What significant life experiences or events have influenced and shaped your artistic vision?

My mother, who used to dress me up and create outfits for me out of her own clothes every time she went out to a party with my dad. Without that little ceremony, I wouldn’t let them leave. I always wanted to have my own ball — and as many clothes as she had! Later came the music from her jukebox and dancing. Then my encounter with movement and my work as a dancer — the moment when my body became another language for me. Tarantino’s films. My grandmother’s love. Within this collection of experiences, I often lose myself in the search for inspiration, trying to have a dialogue through my art.

2. Collaboration often sparks fresh creativity. Can you share an example of a collaboration that led to an unexpected and exciting artistic outcome?

I don’t have one specific example. I love moments when work turns into an exchange — not only of ideas, but of energy. Often, through spontaneity, images were born that couldn’t have been planned beforehand — authentic, fresh, primal. In those moments, I feel that art truly happens: when something unconsciously surpasses us, and we try to follow it. But it’s best not to take it too seriously.

3. Walk us through a specific project that challenged your creative boundaries. How did you approach it, and what did you learn from the experience?

Prima Materia is a project that deeply transformed me. It was originally meant to be purely photographic, but it quickly became clear that it required greater attentiveness. The hardest part was trusting that the image could be born on its own, because I used to think that creating reality through art always carried specific psychological, social, and existential needs. I learned that crossing boundaries doesn’t always mean gaining more control — sometimes it means accepting loss. And that the need to create is born from everyday life.

4. In the ever-evolving art world, what do you believe sets your work apart and makes it unique or groundbreaking?

I don’t know if it’s groundbreaking — but it’s definitely honest. My works grow out of my sensitivity and whatever trembles within me, and then they start to live their own lives. I have no control over who they resonate with, who will hear their own echo in them. All I can do is be authentic in what I create — the rest happens between the artwork and the viewer. In a world oversaturated with stimuli, I’m drawn to what’s organic, to rhythm — to what is timeless.

5. As you reflect on your journey, are there any specific goals or milestones you've set for your artistic career in the coming years?

Honestly, thinking about the future of my career stresses me out. When an idea comes to me, I like to write it down and wait for its moment — I let it breathe. Without pressure. I have many dreams — and I think they’re what guide me. I’d like to keep developing projects that connect everything that feels alive within me. I’m not chasing milestones — more the experiences that help me see and feel more deeply.

• story/Description

  This photographic project is a story of permeation, of a dialogue between body and landscape. Nature and the human meet at a single point. The body becomes a landscape, and the landscape is reflected in the body.

  Surrealism here grows out of simplicity – from the texture of skin, of wood, from the softness of moss, from the matter of fabrics. Each photograph is a moment of suspension, when a person becomes an echo of what surrounds them.

  Matter comes alive, and nature regains its voice through the silhouette and gesture. Where does creation end and primordial substance begin – and does such a boundary exist at all? This question became the starting point of the project. I wanted to maintain a balance between the natural world and the world of creation, attempting to see through both.

  For me, ultimately, it is a study of a shared source – a reminder that the human being, and everything they create, is only another form of the same energy, the same element. I wanted this cycle to open a space for looking: at what is real and imagined, fragile and monumental, bodily and organic, and yet always inseparable.

• Team Credits

  Wardrobe Stylist/Creative Director/Photographer: Dominik Kupka

  Makeup Artist: Izabela Królik

  Model: Maksymilan Bando

• Wardrobe Credits

  Corset: Sinead Gorey

  Flower: Handmade

  Hat: Eugenia Kim

  Jacket: Nanushka

  Set Design: Handmade

  Shirt: Moschino

  Shirt: Palomo

  Shoes: Filling Pieces

  Shoes: Vintage

  Swim Body: Palomo

  Top: Handmade

  Trousers: A.W.A.K.E. Mode

  Trousers: Dolce & Gabbana

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