Anna Molska, Hecatomb, 2011, 16mm film 9'57'', sound Courtesy Foksal Gallery Foundation
Centred around a core exhibition of three young Polish artists showing for the first time in London: Wojciech Bąkowski, Anna Molska and Agnieszka Polska. The artists plan to interweave performances, screenings, readings and discussions, exploring the fresh and innovative ways in which they engage with the history of the avant-garde and the changing social conditions in Poland today, and further making explicit the connections to contemporary Polish literature, poetry and music
The exhibition presented by Calvert 22 gallery in London is shaped as a two-month season entitled "The Forgetting of Proper Names". The season focuses on vibrant contemporary art and culture from Poland which explores the way the past is reshaped over time and reinterpreted as it crosses cultural boundaries.
Now in their late twenties and early thirties Bąkowski (b. 1979, Poznan), Molska (b. 1983, Prudnik) and Polska (b. 1985, Lublin) all grew up in post-communist Poland, their work reflects a new-found internationalism which references the developments of modernism whilst simultaneously engaging with the legacy of the Former East. Although close in age and often employing similar media and materials, each artist interacts with their subject matter in individualised and diverse ways.
The artists' express varied approaches to re-imagining historical events - primarily working with the moving image and cross-discipline methods. Here investigations into the relationships between live events and objects, the use of the body as subject in performance, and the use of sound as a narrative tool form recurring threads. Through the wide range of approaches, the history of the avant-garde and the nature of forgetting in the context of present-day Poland - its changing social conditions - is scrutinized by the exhibition bringing together performances, screenings, reading groups and discussions.
Wojciech Bąkowski's animated films record acute observations of his most immediate and intimate surroundings. Bąkowski, who is perhaps the most prolific and visible member of Poznań’s vibrant art and music community, weaves together video, audio performance, sound-based installation. In his diverse practice, reflections on everyday rituals, as well as the realm of the artist's own consciousness form a narrative and contextual framework. His works offer a crude, existential and subjective expression of the world, and highlights the relationships between performance and video, body and space.
Anna Molska's (born 1983) video works are filmed performances. She invites ordinary people, instead of professional actors, to be protagonists, thus allowing for an authenticity, uncertainty even, and natural spontaneity that is an integral part of the work. She reconsiders revolutionary thought's power to cause social change through investigations of avant-garde visual and political idioms.
Agnieszka Polska's visually powerful explorations of lost times or half-forgotten figures of the Polish avant-garde, turn to how the past is fictionalised and re-worked. The Berlin-based Polish artist works in video, referencing art historical motifs as she collages them with more prosaic found images. Her animated videos juxtapose black-and-white photographs of performances, and illustrations from old textbooks and magazines, evoke a sense of melancholia, and a longing for something that perhaps never was.
This is the first solo show in the London by the participating artists.
The exhibition runs between the 25th of January to the 18th of March 2012. There will be a special performance by Wojciech Bąkowski on the 24th of January at 19:30. On the 11th of March at 16:00, Agnieszka Polska gives a performative lecture.
"The Forgetting of Proper Names" is curated by Lina Džuverović and Dominik Czechowski and is accompanied by an in-depth publication and digital resources, including a diverse events programme featuring curator and artist talks, symposia and a weekly reading group.
Event highlights:
- Every other Wednesday from 25 January until 7 March at 19:00
Reading Group: On (Un)translatability - informal book readings and discussions that explore and contextualise key themes that run throughout the exhibition.
Archive As Strategy Calvert 22's core research strand, "Archive as Strategy: Conversations about Self-historisation Across the East" continues with two major events during the exhibition:
- Saturday 28 / Sunday 29 January 2012
OKTOBAR XXX - The Workshop on Self-Managed Art. A reading weekend with Jelena Vesić and Lutz Becker.
- Saturday 3 March at 14:00-16:00
Archiving the Past Tense Seminar - speakers include writer Eva Hoffman, artist Marysia Lewandowska, academic Luiza Nader, and others.
- Sunday 12 February at 15:00
Studio Visit - Joanna Rajkowska. Internationally acclaimed artist Rajkowska gives a talk on her practice connecting to the themes of memory, trauma and their residue in body and language.
- Thursday 8 March at 19:00
International Women's Day: Electra Presents Works from the Archive of Polish Experimental Film. Pioneering explorations of female self-representation under state socialism - a selection of films from the Archive of Polish Experimental Film, curated by Electra.
- Sunday 11 March at 16:00
Performative Lecture: Agnieszka Polska
CALVERT 22 is the UK's only not-for-profit foundation dedicated to the presentation of contemporary art and culture from Russia, CIS countries and Eastern Europe and presents a dynamic programme of exhibitions, talks and cross-disciplinary events.
The event is supported by the Polish Cultural Institute in London.
For more information see: www.calvert22.org.
Calvert 22
22 Calvert Avenue
London E2 7JP
+44 (0) 20 7613 2141
info@calvert22.org
www.calvert22.org
Source: press materials
Thumbnail credit: Agnieszka Polska. Plunderer's Dream, 2011. HD video, 03:56 min. Courtesy ZAK|BRANICKA