Exhibition poster
Since 2009 Maciej Kurak and Max Skorwider run Niewielka gallery in Poznań. Its name (which simply means "Little") is as modest as the place itself. The artists made it their point to break through this curtain of prestige and so decided to "invite" to their exhibition Magdalena Abakanowicz, the Polish artist whose name had found place on the famous Tate Modern wall. However, the curators faced a crucial dilemma - would the prominent sculptor indeed choose to exhibit in such a small and broke gallery as theirs? About the only way to go was tokidnap one of Abakanowicz's 112 sculptures composing the group entitled Unrecognized, standing in Poznań Citadel.
That's what Magdalena Abakanowiczsays about her Unrecognized:
""This is my most important work. For me it is a sign of a fear that lingers on, of being confronted with a number and with myself".
The Niewielka Gallery was to host Abakanowicz's most important work! Kurak and Skorwider went do-or-die as they indeed kidnapped one of walking figures in the hope that nobody notices its temporary absence and that the exhibition contributes to improved status of their gallery. Was it naivety or topnotch sense of humour and sober look upon the reality in which artists and curators operate? Kurak and Skorwider highlight the catch-as-catch-can rules of this world where anything is used as long as is effective: plagiary, intellectual theft, disinformation.
In a way similar to a couple of Chinese artists Yuan Cai and Jian Jun Xi who lay down to Tracy Emin's My Bed (Tate Modern 1999) and pissed to Marcel Duchamp's Fountain (Tate Modern 2000), the Poznań duo ruthlessly mock at canonical sanctities of the art world. Their action was by no means targeted against Magdalena Abakanowicz. What they chose to challenge is thesystem rather than any particular person. The "Magdalena Abakanowicz UNRECOGNIZED" may be described as a sort of ready made, a quotation - from Abakanowicz and from Duchamp at the same time.
Characteristically, the artists only "borrowed" one of a group of sculptures. In doing this, they took all the sense out of it. The sculpture expressing the feeling of anindividual being lost in the crowd, thrown in anonymity, in alienation, thus became but a pale shadow of Abakanowicz's true work. Kurak and Skorwider just exhibit "a bit ofAbakanowicz", tempt the public with the famous name, apply marketing trick to attract as much attention as possible. In doing that they used the very same manoeuvre asused by institutions which artificially push-up their programmes with exhibitions of mediocre or less important works by famous masters. Their exhibition becomes just afragment torn out from the context, a piece of the overwhelming system.
The exhibition in lokal_30_warszawa_london is a follow-up to that action. Here the curators of Niewielka Gallery were invited with the exhibition they organised and thework they "procured" to the London-based gallery. The trick goes on, London public invited to the show by Maciej Kurak & Max Skorwider, see in fact the work of the Great Magdalena Abakanowicz. What they experience vastly exceeds their expectations; apart from the sculpture guests may see records documenting the act of its "borrowing" and other "evidences of crime" prepared by the duo Kurak/Skorwider.
Project is part of "POLSKA! YEAR" - Polish season in Great Britain.
lokal_30_warszawa_london
29 Wadeson Street
London E2 9DR
Source: press release