Ja Lubie Polske #2 . Negotiators and dreamers
IN COLLABORATION WITH
Fondazione Imago Mundi e Contemporary Art Center KRONIKA
CURATED BY
Stanisław Ruksza
From 27.06 to 5.07.2013
Careof continues the collaboration started earlier this year with the Polish foundation Imago Mundi, presenting Negotiators and Dreamers, a video screening curated by Stanislaw Ruksza, director of the Kronika art center, who was previously hosted in Milan in April 2013 as part of the FDV Residency Program.
Negotiators and Dreamers condenses video works by Polish artists capable of addressing some of the issues that have emerged in Poland over the past two decades, in a context where visual art can become a fundamental factor in the process of negotiating social life during a period of intense transformation. The artists indeed took part in a conflict that involved many aspects of life, a change in the political reality, and the redefinition of its language, which included the reconstruction of a system of notions based on more shared and popular principles.
The social movement that arose as a consequence, being driven by artists, was assimilated into an artistic movement. In fact, today it has acquired the value of an intellectual and political movement that had the merit of suggesting an alternative model of social change. It aimed at creating a more critical society, capable of experiencing democracy differently through questioning the very institutions. As Stanislaw Ruksza points out, artists have the ability to speak freely about issues often considered taboo. They address themes such as homosexuality, violence of power, drugs, repressive education, poverty, disability, feminism, alternative religious practices, politics, and participation in the system of social violence.
The video selection includes works by Katarzyna Górna, Joanna Rajkowska, Marek Wasilewski, Piotr Wysocki, Artur Zmijewski, among others.
Negotiators and Dreamers is the second event of Ja Lubie Polske, Careof’s program for exploring the Polish art scene developed since 2013 through project presentations, video screenings, and residencies for artists and curators.
With the support of Malopolska Krakow Region.
With the contribution of Comune di Milano and Fondazione Cariplo.
Bio
Stanislaw Ruksza, (1979), studied Art History at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. He directs the Kronika Contemporary Art Center in Bytom as curator and artistic director, focusing on projects that engage visual art in dialogue with other disciplines, social sciences, and activism. He has taught at the School of Art at the University of Silesia in Katowice. Since 2007, he has been a member of Krytyka Polityczna (Political Critique) – the most important politically left-leaning Polish cultural enterprise. He is the author of numerous articles on contemporary art. He currently curates the international research program Project Metropolis (in collaboration with Fondazione Imago Mundi), which involves visual and sound artists who consider art a cognitive tool.
Selected exhibitions:
2012: Piotr Wysocki. Transeuro 2012, ArtBoom Festival, Kraków; Social works, Kronika, Bytom.
2011: Collier Schorr. German Faces, Kronika, Bytom; Viennese actionism. The opposite pole of society, MOCAK, Kraków.
2010: Kunstkammera Bytom - the walk as an exhibition, Kronika, Bytom; Catholic at Kronika, Kronika, Bytom.
2008: Jerzy Lewczynski & Mikolaj Dlugosz. Archeologies, Kronika, Bytom; Kronika's alphabet in Berlin, different places, Berlin.
2007: Umpolen, Freiraum, Museum Quartier, Vienna.
2006: Month of Jerzy Lewczynski photography, BWA, Katowice.
2003: Katowice Art Underground after 1953, BWA, Katowice.
Selected texts and catalogs:
2012: Social works, Kronika, Bytom.
2011: To Recover the City, KBF, Kraków; Viennese Actionism. The Opposite Pole of Society, MOCAK, Kraków.
2010: Artur Zmijewski. Trembling bodies, Kronika - DAAD, Bytom – Berlin.
2003: Katowice Art Underground after 1953, BWA, Katowice.