Meet 12 artists who present their work in public spaces during the 10th Festival of Art in Public Spaces – OPEN CITY in Lublin. This year’s theme is ‘reciprocity’ and works are on show between 7 September and 5 October. Stories about reciprocity will open up the conversation on the meaning of and tension between ‘natives’ and ‘aliens’, ‘locals’ and ‘tourists’, ‘visitors’ and ‘residents’. ‘Art in the public space unveils space for agreement and dispute, it gives meaning and values and releases new social energies, it provokes exchange and revives the logic of reciprocity’ – say the promoters of this 10th jubilee Festival. The artworks located in the city, will make the passersby slow down, think and ask questions.
Henk Visch (in the hat), 10 Festival of Art in Public Spaces, Open City, Lublin
HENK VISCH (b. in 1950 in Eindhoven) is one of the most renowned and unusual artists from the Netherlands. He creates sculptures, objects, installations and drawings. He has made a few dozen public space projects all over the world. His works of art always touch upon the subject of ‘reality’ filtered through curiosity, observation, projection and imagination, emotions and beliefs; and for the artist they are the way to communicate with the outside world. Visch has participated in many prestigious international exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale and Documenta in Kassel. His artistic oeuvre is more than impressive, as he has been present in the world of European and global art for many years. He works as an academic teacher in Academies of Fine Arts in: Amsterdam, Maastricht, Stuttgart and Münster.
He lives in Eindhoven and Berlin.
Magdalena Franczak, 10 Festival of Art in Public Spaces, Open City, Lublin
MAGDALENA FRANCZAK (b. in 1978 in Puławy) graduated from the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, where she studied painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts. She is an interdisciplinary artist and a member of the Polish-German group AOUA (Academy of Ugly Arts). She is a co-founder of the Łodygi art collective. As Karolina Sikorska wrote, “Magdalena Franczak speaks about work and creative process as about a natural increment. Behind this metaphor, there is a meticulously compiled collection of found or obtained material objects, which construct intricate patterns of connections between them, forcing the initiator and creator of the collection to incessantly contain and classify gathered materials. For Franczak, work is a continuous process, a struggle with the ephemerality of matter, with preserving, recovering, and placing objects within the visible.”
The artist participated in numerous exhibitions, including: Zachęta Project Room in Warsaw (2014), Paper Shelter at the Mieszkanie Gepperta Gallery in Wrocław (2014), Dream about Bridges Covered with Snow at the Manhattan Gallery in Łódź (2015), Luxury of Discomfort at the BWA Contemporary Art Gallery in Katowice (2016), and A Day When Nothing Happened (with Yael Frank) at the Art Cube Artists’ Studios in Jerusalem (2017).
She lives in Lublin.
Jarosław Koziara – Transformation, 10 Festival of Art in Public Spaces, Open City, Lublin
JAROSŁAW KOZIARA (b. in 1967 in Jędrzejów) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. He is a performer and author of many stage settings for theaters, outdoor events and TV studios, e.g. for The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity. He cooperated with the Voo Voo band and was responsible for designing their album covers, as well as their stage settings and visual identification. Koziara is the author of unconventional artistic projects, including huge, burning constructions and monumental land art projects. He works as a graphic and interior designer. His artistic oeuvre encompasses hundreds of album and book covers, posters and logos. He runs his own business and the publishing house Koziara Tararara. He is a regular columnist of the cultural guide ZOOM Lubelski Informator Kulturalny. He is also the President of the Latająca Ryba Foundation, which for the past eight years has organized Landart Festival annually. He works at the Faculty of Arts of the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin.
He lives in Lublin.
from left – Henk Visch Krzysztof Sołowiej and Robert Kuśmirowski, 10 Festival of Art in Public Spaces, Open City, Lublin
ROBERT KUŚMIROWSKI(b. in 1973 in Łódź) graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, where he also works in the Department of Intermedia Art. He is a performer, the author of installations, objects, photographs and drawings. He is associated with the Foksal Gallery Foundation in Warsaw, Johnen Galerie in Berlin, and Guido Costa Projects in Turin. He has received many awards, including the annual Paszport Polityki award and the award granted by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage in the field of Visual Arts (2011). He has participated in hundreds of exhibitions in most important galleries and museums in Poland and abroad. His works can be found in many private and public collections worldwide. In his art, Kuśmirowski showcases his uncanny ability to craft replicas and recreate objects from the past, interiors, or even entire monumental spaces, disregarding chronology and linearity of time. Uncovering the past that vanishes under layers of sediments of material culture becomes his strategy to deal with the subjects of passing time and death. Kuśmirowski’s actions and performances are of similar nature. Furthermore, they are sometimes accompanied by music composed by the artist himself.
He lives in Lublin.
Pavel Doskočil, 10 Festival of Art in Public Spaces, Open City, Lublin
PAVEL DOSKOČIL (b. in 1968 in Hradec Králové) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. He is a sculptor and performer. He works with the medium of sculpture and art installation applying found objects to his art. In a perverse and sometimes humorous manner, he refers to geometric abstraction and minimalism. He is often inspired by elements of folk art, as well as well-known symbols, which he equips with new, frequently contradictory meanings. His works can be found in both private and public collections, including the National Gallery in Prague and the Gallery of Modern Art in Hradec Králové. He is the founder of LMRA art group, which has taken part in various alternative performance art festivals in, e.g. Prague, Hradec Králové, or Dresden. In 1996-2010, he worked as an assistant professor at the Faculty of Education of the University in Hradec Králové, where he was teaching drawing and modeling. Additionally, he has worked as an art curator and launched the music project PIANO.
He lives in Vršcích.
Katarzyna Szczypior and her work Co (relations), 10 Festival of Art in Public Spaces, Open City, Lublin
KATARZYNA SZCZYPIOR (b. in 1980 in Częstochowa) completed a master’s program in landscape architecture at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin. She engages in community spatial culture projects. Apart from her professional day-to-day work, she creates art installations in the city space (temporary interventions) and in the natural environment (landart). She is particularly interested in activities that oscillate between art and design. In her works in the public space, she mainly uses plants and focuses on various relations: between humans and nature, nature and city, city and humans. She is the author of urban furniture, e.g. in front of the Lublin City Hall, in front of Collegium Norwidianum of the Catholic University of Lublin, or in the courtyard of the Lublin Museum. She has participated in many actions, exhibitions and festivals, including: Genius Loci in Wrocław (2016), Art Attack in Tbilisi (Parking for People, 2015), City of Poetry in Lublin (2014), and Landart Festival (Infinity, 2014). She also created an art installation Flower Stand as part of Grodzka 5 project in Warsztaty Kultury (2014).
She lives and works in Lublin.
Jamais vu by Mirosław Jurczuk, 10 Festival of Art in Public Spaces, Open City, Lublin
MIROSŁAW “NORDYK” JURCZUK (b. in 1975 in Włodawa) graduated from the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, where he studied culture management and culture animation. He is responsible for stage design for various concerts as well as for plays, including Śmierć Szczęśliwa directed by Łukasz Witt-Michałowski, The Tempest by Paweł Passini and Vulva by Joanna Lewicka. He is also the author of the design, execution and visual identification for Bio-Object, which was a mobile space for cultural events used to present Poland during Polish Presidency of the EU Council. Jurczuk designs logos and covers, and runs other graphic projects. He has participated in a number of exhibitions and worked on many individual projects in Lublin, Włodawa, Lviv or Popowice, at the biggest land art festival in Ukraine. His most recognizable art projects in Lublin include those prepared for the Eastern Europe Initiative Congress and for two editions of the Night of Culture.
He lives in Lublin.
Robert Zajac from kilku.com, 10 Festival of Art in Public Spaces, Open City, Lublin
KILKU.COM ART COLLECTIVE – the collective is a team of four people. There are two duos; one specializes in designing publications, the other works with interactive media and stage design. Aleksander Janas (b. in 1982 in Lublin) creates visual identity for performances, stage settings, interactive installations and animations. He also works in the field of education, conducting workshops on interactive media and open technologies. Idalia Smyczyńska (b. in 1978 in Lublin) focuses on visual communication (publishing design and visual identification, in particular). She graduated from psychology and completed the University Typography Course. She co-organized the Typolub conference on graphic design and typography. Paweł Szarzyński (b. in 1987 in Chełm) deals with animation, photography, TV and film postproduction, and programming. He works as a teacher at the Warsaw School of Photography and Graphic Design. Robert Zając (b. in 1981 in Kielce) is a graphic designer. He completed a master’s course in philosophy and the University Typography Course, of which he has been a supporter ever since. He taught information design and info-activism at the Faculty of Political Science of the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin.
The collective received several awards and honorary mentions, including: European Design Awards, Good Design Award 2017 granted by the Institute of Industrial Design, 50 Books / 50 Covers – AIGA Award, Design of the Year – STGU Award, The Most Beautiful Book of the Year Award granted by PTWK.
Monika and Tomasz Bialk and their work Equilibrium, 10 Festival of Art in Public Spaces, Open City, Lublin
MONIKA ZADURSKA-BIELAK (b. in 1967 in Lublin) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk. She is a sculptor and runs ceramics and art workshops. In 2011, she established her own art studio (Potok Pracownia Plastyczna), where she organizes ceramics and art workshops for children and adults. Since 2012, silicone has become her material of choice. She uses it to mold realistic figures. She has created elements of stage settings for exhibitions held in various museum centers in Poland.
TOMASZ BIELAK (b. in 1967 in Lublin) graduated from the Academy in Fine Arts in Gdańsk. He is committed to graphic design, painting and sculpture. He is also the author of art installations and large-format murals. In his paintings, Bielak combines traditional techniques and skills with a conceptual approach to art. His realistic images of figures, objects and animals (e.g. monkeys) are depicted on neutral, abstract backgrounds. The artists is well-known for creating the so-called ArtSquares – small graphic works which serve as an artistic and philosophical commentary on the surrounding reality and are published in the cultural guide ZOOM Lubelski Informator Kulturalny, as well as in weekly issues of Rejsy magazine, part of Dziennik Bałtycki daily issued in the Tricity metropolitan area. These characteristic, ironic pictograms often refer to social and political situation in Poland.
Both artists live in Lublin.
Krzysztof Sołowiej, 10 Festival of Art in Public Spaces, Open City, Lublin
KRZYSZTOF SOŁOWIEJ (b. in 1962 in Białystok) studied at the Institute for Art Education (now Institute of Fine Arts) of the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin and graduated from the State Higher School of Fine Arts (now Academy of Fine Arts) in Poznań. He works with sculpture and art objects, in which he refers to meanings found in the tradition of culture. Using traditional sculpting techniques, Sołowiej redefines traditional conventions. From an ideological perspective, his art is conceptual, but on the visual level, it is sensual, symbolic and allusive. In a unique way, his works play with imagination, allowing the viewers to have their own interpretations and make them meaningful. Sołowiej has participated in a number of solo exhibitions, including galleries: Kont and Biała in Lublin; ON, AT, Arsenał, EGO and the International Art Center in Poznań; Arsenał in Białystok, as well as Kunst # Stücke in Vienna. He participated in various events, including Lightness of Things at the Ujazdowski Castle Center for Contemporary Art in Warsaw in 2013, Mediations Biennale in Poznań in 2008 and 2010, and Water Falls at Stary Browar in Poznań in 2012. His works can be found in the collections of Zachęta in Poznań, Szczecin and Olsztyn, as well as in many private collections.
He lives in Poznań.
Sofie Muller – AL LII 17, 10 Festival of Art in Public Spaces, Open City, Lublin
SOFIE MULLER (b. in 1974 in Sint-Niklaas). In her artistic practice, Muller carefully examines human condition and the beauty of personal sensibility. Main themes that she explores and that continuously come back in her oeuvre are imperfection and psychological trauma resulting from loss, fear, shame, illness, disability, non-fulfillment, violence, closely guarded secrets, or fear of adolescence. She has presented her works at many solo exhibitions in Belgium, e.g. at the Geukens & De Vil Gallery in Antwerp and C-mine in Genk, as well as in Germany at the Martin Kudlek Gallery in Cologne. She also participated in more than one hundred group exhibitions in France, Italy, Belgium, Austria, Germany, USA, Poland, the Netherlands, India and Switzerland. She is the author of five projects in the urban space in various cities in Belgium.
She lives in Gaunt.
Kamil Stańczak and his Crash background, 10 Festival of Art in Public Spaces, Open City, Lublin
KAMIL STAŃCZAK (b. in 1980 in Puławy) graduated from the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, where he currently works as an assistant professor. He is a visual artist, constructor and peripheral traveler. He mainly works with the medium of painting. He creates installations, spatial forms and kinetic objects. He presented his works during 13 solo exhibitions held by, among others, Biała Gallery and LuCreate Open Studio in Lublin, Puławy Art Gallery in POK Dom Chemika in Puławy, Sanocka Gallery in Sanok, Wozownia Gallery in Toruń, Agora Cultural Center in Wrocław, Olimpia Gallery in Kraków, and Gallery of Contemporary Art in Przemyśl. He also participated in, among others, 6th National Exhibition of Young Painting, Geppert Competition at the BWA Awangarda Gallery in Wrocław in 2005, Polish Painting of the 21st Century at Zachęta – National Gallery of Art in Warsaw in 2007, 41 Painting Biennale Bielska Jesień at the BWA Bielska Gallery in Bielsko Biała in 2013, Hideout at the Labirynt Gallery in Lublin in 2015, 6th Landart Festival in 2016, Memento, a deadly serious exhibition in 2017 and Guest Show in 2018 at Otwarta Pracownia Gallery in Kraków.
He lives in Lublin.
Visit:
10 Festival of Art in Public Spaces OPEN CITY / RECIPROCITY
Lublin 07 Sep – 05 Oct 2018
