Metaphysical cognition in hermeneutic interpretation: remarks on Grzegorz Sztabiński’s The Writing of Nature – Transcendence III

The article contains a hermeneutic interpretation of the art of Grzegorz Sztabiński, a contemporary Polish artist creating drawings, paintings and installations. It starts with definitions of transcendence, hermeneutic interpretation, metaphysical cognition, and artistic installation. The main section is comprised of descriptions and interpretations of the artist’s works, created throughout his career, including his own comments and those of his critics, especially in relation to the cycle Pismo natury – Transcendencja [The Writing of Nature: Transcendence]. The text explains how the artist finds the signs of writing to be traces of transcendence concealed in nature and how the relationship between the artwork and the place is used to build the new contexts of each exposure (serving always to discover the transcendence). Finally, the game of models of distinguishing the object of metaphysical cognition is described and in conclusion the metaphysical cognition discovered in the hermeneutic interpretation of an artwork is found as a way of being in the world proposed by art.