Young Artists From Poland

In 2022, already for the twentieth time, the Kunstmuseum Bonn is organizing the exhibition for the  Dorothea von Stetten Art Award, which was awarded for the first time in 1984. Ever since its reorganization, the award has focused on the generation of young artists in a neighboring European country: up to now, the Czech Republic (2014), the Netherlands (2016), Denmark (2018) and Switzerland (2020).

This year attention turns to the complex, highly self-reflective art scene in Poland which at the moment, however, is also faced with extreme challenges because of the political situation in the country. Nine nominators proposed up-and-coming positions, from which a jury selected the three finalists.

Whereas Zuza Golińska examines our role in social systems and public spaces, Daniel Rycharski reflects upon sexual identity in the context of religiosity, tradition and provinciality. At the interface between art and science, Diana Lelonek investigates our treatment of the environment and its resources.

For the first time in the history of the Dorothea von Stetten Art Award, the participating artists have decided, as a gesture of solidarity, to share between themselves the award and prize money totaling 10,000 euros.

Jury: Adam Budak (Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover), Fatima Hellberg (Bonner Kunstverein), Ania Kołyszko (freelance curator, author), Marie Matusz (participant in the Dorothea von Stetten Art Award 2020) and Aneta Rostkowska (Temporary Gallery, Cologne)

Nominators: Anda Rottenberg, art historian, art critic, writer, former director of the Zachęta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw, Monika Szewczyk, director of the Arsenal Gallery in Białystok, Sebastian Cichocki, Chief Curator of Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw.

More

Zuza Golińska is a multidisciplinary artist who explores the seemingly binary relationship between modernism and contemporary romanticism, between discipline and magical thinking. She analyses the events from her life in a broader socio-political context, noting the patterns of which she is a part of. Zuza is interested in the heritage of the former Eastern Bloc in the construction of her own cultural and gender identity. In her latest work The Claws of Events presented in the Kunstmuseum Bonnshe combines steel, characteristic to her previous works with soft sculptures made of textiles. 

Erratic, black lines stretch in the space, they penetrate shiny pink forms that spread on the floor underneath them. The piercing sharpness of the steel limbs fragments the soft body into separate elements. The scene is uncanny yet weirdly familiar. Constant pressure on the pink skin-like social tissue. Small puncture marks can be painful. The process is slow, you might not even notice. Oppressive impulses are often ignored. For your own safety make sure to recognize them as fast as possible. Once diagnosed they can be named.