Courtesy of Zachęta National Gallery
The project has been created especially for the space of the Schmela Haus, using her trademark themes to create a new context for them based on an interplay with size, scale and proportion. The space and architecture particular to the German museum is the point of reference, with the artist examining how the context and reception of a piece changes as the exhibition environment changes.
The exhibition has been organised in cooperation with the Zachęta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw, which held an extensive retrospective of Kozyra's works in 2010. The exhibition was the start of her Casting project, which called upon members of the public to 'try out' for a part in a fictional film production based on her life. She hosted subsequent "castings" in New York and Tel Aviv. The Warsaw-based artist (born 1963) is today among Poland's most recognised artists, not only for her video works which push the boundaries of perception about social norms and conventions. As a leading figure leading figure of the "critical art" movement in Poland, she confronts issues related to taboos or the marginalised parts of society. In recent years she has taken an interest in how the perception of her earlier works has evolved over the past two decades and how it changes depending on the viewer and its immediate context.
The exhibition is part of the Klopsztanga 2012 - Polish Cultural Programme in North Rhine-Westphalia organised by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.
Master of Puppets is on the Schmela Haus in Düsseldorf between the 26th of October 2012 - 10th of March 2013. For more information, see: www.kunstsammlung.de
Editor: Agnieszka Le Nart
Source: Press release