Sculpture in Search of a Place Until 21 February 2021
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Oskar Dawicki, Dawicki, Oskar Sculpture with Granat Playing in Search of a Place Press Grzegorz , 2020, film, object, photo: until 21 February 2021 The institution Partner financed by of the exhibition It is not without a reason that the exhibition fea- Sculpture in Search of a Place tures the famous Pregnant Women by Xawery Dunikowski, a classic and precursor of modernist sculpture in Poland, curator: Anna Maria Leśniewska who had a huge impact on the next generations of artists. collaboration from the part of Zachęta: Julia Leopold His works provide a kind of starting point for the exhibi- exhibition design: Robert Rumas tion, if one tries to look at the subject of sculpture and the exhibition partner: Film School in Łódź changes it has undergone over the years from historical perspective. Next to them, visitors can see, among oth- artists: ers, polyester forms by Alina Szapocznikow and figurative Magdalena Abakanowicz, Paweł Althamer, Hakan Bakir, private nudes by Katarzyna Kozyra. Also present here are Antoni Baran, Krzysztof M. Bednarski, Maciej Bernaś, works of folk art and African masks which, through their Cezary Bodzianowski, Emilia Bohdziewicz, Piotr Bosacki, primal power of expression, have been shown by the curator Julian Boss-Gosławski, Michał Budny, Tatiana Czekalska as constitutive for the phenomenon of sculpture. i Leszek Golec, Oskar Dawicki, Xawery Dunikowski, Another key to the exhibition is offered by the theory Aneta Grzeszykowska, Izabella Gustowska, Władysław of the four elements, inextricably linked with the concept Hasior, Stanisław Hołda, Edward Ihnatowicz, Sławomir of spirituality. These forces of the world — primal, consti- Iwański, Zuzanna Janin, Jerzy Jarnuszkiewicz, Krystian tutive and form-creating — have been the inspiration for Jarnuszkiewicz, Piotr Jędrzejewski, Julian Jończyk, Koji the works of Robert Kuśmirowski and Norman Leto, created Kamoji, Tadeusz Kantor, Leszek Knaflewski, Marianna especially for the exhibition. Next door, Katarzyna Kobro’s Komorniczak, Anna Konik, Paweł Kowalewski, Katarzyna artistic output is invoked through the works of other artists, Kozyra, Edward Krasiński, Anna Królikiewicz, Marlena illustrating the significant role of the artist’s concept of Kudlicka, Kamil Kuskowski, Robert Kuśmirowski, Stefan departing from understanding sculpture as a solid towards Kwapisz, Norman Leto, Zbigniew Libera, Józef Lurka, seeing it as a form coexisting with space. Monumental Edward Łazikowski, Jadwiga Maziarska, Antoni Mikołajczyk, Composition, the biggest piece in Magdalena Abakanowicz’s Henryk Morel, Szczepan Mucha, Teresa Murak, Ludwika woven oeuvre, is just such a form. Ogorzelec, Wojciech Oleksy, Stanisław Ostoja-Kotkowski, Apart from these concepts, the authors of the works Włodzimierz Pawlak, Andrzej Pawłowski, Marek Piasecki, on display have also been interested in the human being. Maria Pinińska-Bereś, Piotr Potworowski, Joanna Przybyła, The exhibition presents works related to the human body, Monika Puchała, Joanna Rajkowska, Józef Robakowski, its death and decay, but also to the senses. Another topic Andrzej Różycki, Krystiana Robb-Narbutt, Jadwiga Sawicka, discussed by the curator is the artist’s home and studio Stanisław Seweryński, Janek Simon, Monika Sosnowska, seen as a specific, intimate place of work and life, full of Alina Szapocznikow, Maciej Szańkowski, Andrzej Szewczyk, creative energy. The exhibition is also an opportunity for the Marian Szulc, Wawrzyniec Szwej, Iza Tarasewicz, Teresa visitors to look at the phenomenon of sculpture going be- Tyszkiewicz, Gustav Vigeland, Henryk Wiciński, Krzysztof yond lexical definitions, revealing its links with other areas Wodiczko, Xawery Wolski, Stanisław Zagajewski, Anna of art: music, theatre, photography, performance and an Zagrodzka, Krzysztof Zarębski, Sofi Żezmer, Artur Żmijewski autonomous film work. Thus, the exhibition features Oskar film makers: Dawicki, who has been usually associated with the art of Paweł Edelman, Mikołaj Haremski, Ola Jankowska, Łukasz performance, and staged his latest work in the Zachęta’s Karwowski, Stefan Matyjaszkiewicz, Mitko Panov, Cyprian exhibition rooms, depopulated due to the lockdown. The Piwowarski, Zbigniew Rybczyński, Yann Seweryn, Jacqueline last part of the exhibition is dominated by Edward Ihnatow- Sobiszewski, Jarosław Szoda, Andrzej Wajda, Ryszard icz’s interactive kinetic sculpture Senster, which leads to Waśko, Janusz Zagrodzki, Ita Zbroniec-Zajt another topic — machine-sculpture. The exhibition covers a very vast area — both in terms of its historical and thematic approach, as well as the way The exhibition Sculpture in Search of a Place is yet another it presents the very phenomenon of sculpture: from a com- one in a series of cross-sectional thematic exhibitions at pact solid to space, from classic to modern forms of ex- the Zachęta, devoted each year to a different artistic me- pression. This is also reflected in spectacular site-specific dium (previously painting and scenography). It tackles the installations by Ludwika Ogorzelec in the space of one of the subject of the identity of Polish sculpture over the last sixty rooms and by Iza Tarasewicz in the Zachęta’s main stair- years — not so much as a chronology of artistic activity, but case, manifestations of the broadly understood art of space, as a presentation of the phenomena and creative attitudes which also includes sound. that have been essential for its development. It is also the The exhibition is accompanied by a screening of film result of the deep fascination and many years of research studies by filmmakers from the Film School in Łódź and an of its curator, Anna Maria Leśniewska, who has managed to online publication containing texts by the artists partici- collect the works of nearly a hundred visual artists, includ- pating in the exhibition, a long curatorial text and extensive ing a dozen or so film makers, and present them in the form visual material. of an original visual essay. Zachęta — National Gallery of Art 2 zacheta.art.pl room 1 SPACE room 2 room 7 room 6 ELEMENTS MACHINE room 3 room 4 room 5 MONTAGE HOME/STUDIO HUMAN room 1 — Space room 4 — Home/Studio The sculpture is part of the space in which it is located. Intimate space — between the vision and the materiality Therefore, it should not be separated from it. The sculpture of the object enters into the space and the space enters into it. Katarzyna Kobro, ‘Rzeźba i bryła’, Europa, no. 2, 1929, p. 60 room 5 — Human Although we use the most advanced technologies, we are room 2 — Elements constantly dependent on our sensory system, emotions, We speak about an element when a force seems to come the resonance instruments that our bodies and senses. from nowhere; when it unexpectedly erupts beyond our control and beyond our power of judgement. room 7 — Machine Piotr Bosacki Towards a thinking machine Edward Ihnatowicz, Towards a Thinking Machine (1975), w: Artist and room 3 — Montage Computer, ed. Ruth Leavitt, Harmony Books, 1976, pp. 32–34 The art of space is ‘theatre’ today. It is not static. It is a multimedia show with sound, lights and projections. The exhibition takes up not only seven exhibition rooms, In my works, action is connected with sound, installation, but the main hall, the space of the representative stair- objects, things and presence. case and the building’s façade. Krzysztof Zarębski, 25 July 2020 Zachęta — National Gallery of Art 3 zacheta.art.pl SELECTED WORKS AT THE EXHIBITION Iza Tarasewicz, Flowing in Waves Towards Equilibrium, Xawery Dunikowski, Pregnant Women, 1906, patinated 2011–2020, Installation: steel, aluminium bronze, Xawery Dunikowski Sculpture Museum in Królikarnia, Branch of the National Museum in Warsaw photo: Monika Stolarska/Zachęta archive, CC BY-SA photo: Daniel Rumiancew/Zachęta archive, CC BY-SA I have been fascinated with Michael Serres’ book The Birth of Physics for years, and that is where the title of my newest Everything points to Xavery Dunikowski being the first art- installation at Zachęta comes from. The work had its start ist in Poland who made sculpture into art. Before him, in in Georgia. In 2011, during a several-months’ residence stay his own words, ‘it was as if there was nothing’. Objectively there, I drew a plan that had exactly the shape of the instal- speaking, there were only statues. Statues or commem- lation presented at Zachęta. Generally speaking, the draw- orative figures. Dunikowski showed that sculpture can be ing, called View, is a philosophical diagram of the meeting an independent artistic statement. I am thinking, above of two abstract points, in which the strongest field of inter- all, of the Young Poland period of his work. Despite initial action falls in the middle, the cumulation of waves/lines is resistance, he convinced the ‘Sarmatian heads’ that sculp- placed in the centre of the largest circle, and within it, three ture is art and not just public praise. small rings represent intellectual power, physiology and élan Zbigniew Libera, July 2020 vital. The drawing shows my version of the hylozoic view that ascribes life, the ability to move and spiritual properties to all matter. The hexagon built with the rigorous geometry of tight ropes is the embodiment of chemical structures that create nearer and further materiality, without divisions into better–worse, important–unimportant, etc. The work shown in the exhibition is the schema of a meeting. For me, the meeting is a trembling, a flow, an exchange focused on changeability, sometimes illogicality, randomness