"Everything is Darkness" by Hubert Czerepok
Hubert Czeropok is part of two international group shows making an active commentary on contemporary culture and the impact of politics and society on everyday life
On the 21st of June the Polish artist participates in a discussion on cultural transformation, its challenges and its impact on the politics of identity at the EFA Project Space. The discussion is part of the ongoing Cultural Transference exhibition, featuring international artists exploring the social, spiritual, economic and political aspects of culture and how its practices are in flux, measuring the speed with which it is transmitted and transformed as it travels among the members of society. The works presented range from video, sculpture, performance, installation to collage and craft-based projects by artists who draw their inspiration from global resources. The works draw out identity and individuality in a time of change in spite of possible resistance from individuals or institutions.
Hubert Czerepok, "Lux Aeterna", 2011, video frame. Photo courtesy of Żak-Branicka Gallery
In New York Polish artist Hubert Czerepok presents his 2011 video Lux Aeterna, previously presented in Berlin, which sets the soaring inspirations of Romantic poetry and landscape imagery with the ravings of tyrants and madmen. The subject of this video is Anders Breivikm, who listened to a loop of Clint Mansell's musical work Lux Aeterna during his murderous rampage on the Norwegian island of Utoya. The companion light installation titled Everything is Darkness explores the connections between his media and the fiction of history and truth, where enlightenment meets madness.
Czerepok is interested in the border between enlightenment and possession, between the Faustian concepts of good and evil. He uses perfection to point out the imperfect, logic to point out the irrational. He draws his subject matter and style from the media - news, politics, science and philosophy - and draws out its contradictions and idiosyncrasies. He presents his 2009 installation Salvation Islands in Berlin at the Żak Branicka Gallery as part of the From the Sunniest Day to the Darkest Night group exhibition. The inspiration for the show is drawn from Ivo Andrić novel about Sarajevo as a place that never knows peace, even in the stillness of night. Czerepok's work consists of three bullet-riddled piles of holy books: the Bible, Koran and Tanakh. This work concerns issues tied to the politics of religion, with bullets literally riddling the pages of these holy books, alluding to times when such a book have saved many a soldier from death - highlighting the violent aspects of religious fevour and its potential for salvation.
Hubert Czerepok (born 1973 in Slubice). He received his MFA in sculpture and drawing from the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań, Poland. In 2001 he took part in a Research Program at the National Academy of Fine Arts in Oslo, Norway. In the years 2000-2002 he formed the artistic duo Magisters with Zbigniew Rogalski. In 2002-2003 he was a researcher at the Fine Arts Department of the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht, The Netherlands. Czerepok has shown his work in Poland, The Netherlands, Estonia, Latvia, and Germany. In 2011 he took part in the Polish Cultural Institute's Artists-in-Residence program at the OMI International Artists Residency, Ghent, NY, Czerepok explores the connections between fiction and truth in the telling of history through the media of drawing, painting, photography, installation, and video.
Cultural Transference runs between the 15th of June - 27th of July 2012. The discussion Turning the World takes place on the 21st of June at 6:30 p.m. at the EPA Project Space. The exhibition is presented by the EFA Project Space at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts. Hubert Czerepok with support from the Polish Cultural Institute New York and Adam Mickiewicz Institute.
Participating Artists: Firelei Baez, Matthew Cowan, Hubert Czerepok, Nicolas Dumit Estevez, Pablo Helguera, Christopher K. Ho, Yoko Inoue, LoVid, Umesh Maddanahalli, Dread Scott and Kyle Goen, Allison Smith, Juliana Irene Smith, Shinique Smith, and Elisabeth Smolarz.
Curator: Sara Reisman
EFA Project Space
323 West 39th Street, 2nd Floor, NY, New York
www.efanyc.org/cultural-transference
From the Sunniest Day to the Darkest Night takes place between the 22nd of June - 1st of September 2012 (opening 22nd of June at 6:00 pm) at the Żak-Branicka Gallery in Berlin.
Participating artists: Maja Bajević, Adrian Paci, Alban Hajdinaj, Igor Grubić, Hubert Czerepok
Curated by Agata Rogoś
Żak-Branicka Gallery
Lindenstr. 34-35, 10969 Berlin
www.zak-branicka.com
Editor: Agnieszka Le Nart
Source: Polish Cultural Insitute, EPA Project Space