"LikeKonik" project, designed by Kobas Laksa, photo courtesy of ArtBoom Tauron Festival
The ArtBoom Tauron festival brings the contemporary art scene to Kraków with a bang through thought-provoking works that interact with audiences and stimulate discussion throughout the city's urban space.
This is the biggest contemporary art festival in Kraków, presenting works by artists from Poland and abroad, including Sweden, Germany, Belarus and Israel. In addition, there is an academic conference planned, along with a film series, lectures and discussion panels with artists. Barbara London - curator of new media projects and creator of the video collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York - will be a special guest at the festival.
The festival takes place in Krakow's public spaces, integrating this space into the artworks and provoking passers-by to reconsider their every-day reality. Another unique feature of the festival is the adoption of certain pieces presented during the festival into the permanent collection of the
National Museum in Krakow, while others will become a permanent fixture within the city's urban landscape.
An overview of the most significant projects of this year's edition:
Cezary Bodzianowski "Bunkier" / "Bunker"
The "bunker" referred to in the title off this piece refers to the name given to a hazard in golf terminology, namely, a hole filled in with sand. Dressed in golf attire, Bodzianowski will try to overcome the obstacles in his path at another sort of bunker - Krakow's Bunkier Sztuki contemporary art gallery.
Robert Kuśmirowski "Makieta projektu rozbiórki" / "Blueprint for a Demolition Project"
Kuśmirowski's goal was to find a building in Krakow that he could paint white from top to bottom. All elements of the facade - antennas, sign posts, roof, doors, windows and even laundry hung out to dry and plastic flowers - would be treated to a coat of white paint. The idea behind the project is to create a blank page resembling a plaster model of the building that would then be marked by authentic blueprint figures.
Janek Simon "Metafizyka Dwugłowego Cielęcia" / "Metaphysics of a Two-Headed Calf"
This multi-media performance is based on a play by
Witkacy. "I've been interested in the issue of denying or erasing Polish colonialism for some time. Before the war, the government planned the acquisition of several colonies for Poland, among them Madagascar and Toto, as well as the establishment of plantations in Brazil and secret contracts with the government of Liberia (...) Currently, our identity - limited culturally and historically - stands before the challenge of fitting itself within a broader framework - that of Europe or the West and the problem of unresolved colonial concerns returns. The 'Metaphysics of a Two-Headed Calf' assumes a consideration of this subject through the prism of Witkacy's work, which takes an innovative approach to the problem of the West's relations with what lies beyond. Its realisation will take on the form of a mechanical-multi-media performance that takes place in real time. (...) It will blow fire and smoke," says
Simon.
Kobas Laksa "LikeKonik"
Kobas Laksa wants to refresh the meaning of the "Lajkonik", one of the most recognisable symbols of Krakow. Currently, this costume of a knight astride a horse serves tourists as an element of local folklore. The goal of the artist is to get to the source of this symbol and to find a contemporary counterpart that would also be written into its rich history. In order to accomplish this, Laksa began to study the history of the symbol and its derivation, exploring its most tawdry, threatening or even dangerous connotations.
Maciej Kurak "Klatka stop" / "Stop Cage",
Kurak's newest project is based on the idea of manipulating the image of the gallery space, transferring the load of meanings that a particular place carries and replacing it with another. The exchange of the Manhattan Gallery in Łódź with Warsaw's lokal_30 took place along these lines, and now Poznań's Galeria Niewielka will make its way to the centre of Krakow. The gallery space will be replicated exactly within the temporary space built especially for the purposes of this project.
Guy Ben-Ner "Untitled"
The film "Untitled", also known as "Drop the Monkey", was prepared for the prestigious Performa 09 festival in New York. The 8-minute recording of a phone conversation between the artist and himself, put together during his year-long travels between Berlin and Tel Aviv. The structural basis of the movie is a montage: the artist filmed scenes from a script as he travelled between the two cities, from one scene to the next. He could have simplified the process by filming all the Berlin scenes at once and then doing the same in Tel Aviv. Yet, Ben-Ner didn't do any post-production work or interfere in the original material in any way or make any changes to the order of the scenes. The resulting film took 12 months to make. The work refers to the beginnings of video art from the late sixties and early seventies. At the same time, it also brings up re-occurring themes in Ben-Nur's work: the element of unity within the life and the work of an artist, the negotiation of the boundaries between the public and private, as well as a commentary on the mechanisms governing the art world and issues of German-Jewish relations.
Gustav Metzger "Project Stockholm, June, (Phase 1)"
The fascinating story behind "Project Stockholm, June, (Phase 1)" begins in 1970. In London, the "Mobbile" project - based on leading a car's exhaust pipe into a plastic box attached to the roof. The box had pieces of meat and flowers hanging within it, subject to exhaust as the car was driven around the area of the Hayward Gallery, which was then hosting a show on kinetic art. In 1972 Metzger developed this idea further in the "Karba" project after Harald Szemann invited him to participate in the V Documenta in Kassel. This time, the piece was made up of four cars whose exhaust pipes led to a large plastic cube. And unfortunate turn of events stopped the project from being realised, even though it was included in the show's catalogue. Simultaneously, Metzger had been working on a similar, though more spectacular, project for the UN environmental conference in Sweden in 1972. This was "Project Stockholm, June, (Phase 1)". 120 cars were used for this project and their exhaust collected in a space constructed especially for this purpose. This project was also abandoned before it could be realised, until 2008 when it was put together for the Sharjah Biennale in the United Arab Emirates. The second, never realised, phase of the project assumed the collection of the cars within the exhaust-filled structure, where they would ultimately combust and explode like bombs. As early as the '60s and '70s, Metzger was involved in projects related to pollution and the environment, foreshadowing the current struggle with the effects of rapidly developing technology and industry on ecology. At the same time, "Project Stockholm, June, (Phase 1)" can be considered within the context of the Holocaust, which had a big impact on the artist in his childhood.
A detailed program and description of all festival activities can be found online at
www.artboomfestival.pl.
The first edition of the ArtBoom Festival took place in 2009 (
see more...), involving such artists as Pipilotti Rist,
Joanna Rajkowska,
Paweł Althamer,
Mirosław Bałka, Grzegorz Szwiertnia and
Grupa Twożywo.
The Festival's Art Director is Małgorzata Gołębiewska.
ArtBoom Tauron takes place between June 11-27, 2010.
Source: press materials,
www.artboomfestival.pl