Mirosław Bałka's work is renowned among historians, curators, critics and collectors of contemporary art. Yet it's presentation has mainly been fragmentary, dedicated to specific projects. The new "Fragment" exhibition presented by the Centre for Contemporary Art at Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw is the first comprehensive presentation of the video works of Mirosław Bałka to be held in Poland and in the world. Given the artist's stated intent to abandon further work in video, the exhibition is also a retrospective on a complete body of work.
Video has played a unique role in Bałka's work. The medium has allowed the artist to infuse his sculpture work with new artistic forms, as well as images and themes that have revealed themselves to be unexpected extensions of his previous work, nevertheless providing the artist with fascinating avenues to step outside his own work and consider it from new perspectives.
The exhibition presents video works that span the last twelve years of Bałka's creative work: from the beginning, going to back the very first, created in 1998, through his most recent work (2010), on public view for the very first time.
The exhibition includes renowned works that are counted among the classics of contemporary art, such as Winterreise (2003), composed of the films Bambi and Pond, Carrousel (2004), which was acquired in 2010 by the Tate Modern for its collection, as well as BlueGasEyes (2004). But lesser-known works are also on display, as are entirely new creations, notably Bottom (1999/2003), Narayama (2002), Michelangelo Buonarotti Reading (2004), Flagellare A,B,C (2009) and Apple T. (2009/2010).
Several of the works featured in Fragment have been shown previously at the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen K-21 in Dusseldorf (2006), the WRO Art Centre in Wrocław (2008), the University of Massachusetts in Amherst (2009) and the Modern Art Oxford, in Oxford, England (2009). In the coming year, selected works featured in Fragment will also be exhibited at the Akademie der Kunste in Berlin, from October to December 2011.
The exhibition is accompanied by a selection of films under the collective title Mirosław Bałka: the Sculpture Film Club, chosen by the artist for their significance as reference points and potential sources of inspiration for his work, along with a series of discussions on the artist's work, with noted scholars, intellectuals, art critics and historians.
Parallel to the Fragment exhibition at the CCA, the Museo Reina Sofia is showing Mirosław Bałka's Ctrl exhibition simultaneously at the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid and at the Benedictine Abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos, in the northern Spanish province of Burgos (2010-2011). For more info, see: www.museoreinasofia.es.
Curator: Marek Goździewski.
Exhibition ppening: January 14, 2010, at 18:00.
The show runs between January 15 - April 3, 2011.
Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle
Jazdów 2, 00-467 Warsaw
Director: Fabio Cavallucci
tel. (+48 22) 628 76 83, 628 12 71-3, 628 64 08
fax (+48 22) 628 95 50
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Source: csw.art.pl