Jarosław Kozakiewicz works on the intersection of art, architecture, and science. The artist is predominantly interested in the relationship between humans and their surrounding, the connection between architecture and body perceived from the perspective of such issues as cosmology and holism, astronomy, ecology, and genetics, which allow the artist to investigate the links between the micro and macrocosmos.
In 1997, Kozakiewicz created the work On the Boundaries of Bodies, whose title refers to Nicolaus Copernicus’s treaty On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres. Kozakiewicz created lead casts of nine holes in the human body, assigning to each of them a planet from the Solar System; the work also acted as a kind of self-portrait, as the casts were based on the artist’s own body. This combination of astronomy and physiology derives from the holistic concept of knowledge which proclaims a strict relationship between man and cosmos.
In 1998, Kozakiewicz continued working on projects analysing the mutual relationship between the human body and the Solar System, and created Landscapes: The Concept of a Humanistic Theory of the Solar System. Landscapes is based on three main elements: the human body, Continental Europe, and the Solar System. The artist once again linked openings in human body to planets (including the mythical Planet X) and then projected them onto the map of Europe, retaining the proportions of distance between the orbits of individual spheres as well as the size ratio of planets (in a 1:400,000 scale). The artist created ten architectural mockups of artificially shaped landscape forms resembling fragments of the human body, located in various places in Europe. The project was utopian in its nature, however, it ended up being partially realised.
In 2003, Kozakiewicz took part in a competition for the revitalisation of post-industrial territories in the Lusatian Lake District in Germany (former GDR), more precisely in the town of Boxberg by Bärwalder See. The artist won the competition with a project proposing the construction of a big land art piece in the shape of the left ear – Mars Project (2003), on ground which had been degraded by opencast lignite mines.
130,000 m3 of earth was used in creating this project, whose form is only visible from a bird’s-eye view; it is also seen by satellites orbiting the Earth. An amphitheatre for 270 people was built inside the shell of the ear; the whole project is to act as a park and a tourist attraction. Its visitors encounter an anthropomorphic landscape, however it is impossible to see the sculpture in its entirety from any position within it. Lusatia has flat terrain, therefore the artificial hills, the highest of which reaches 18 metres, provide the local residents with an opportunity to experience a landscape they are familiar with from a brand new perspective.
The project was financed from resources provided by the Boxberg borough.
Jarosław Kozakiewicz, Mars Project, 2007 (Boxberg)
350 m (l) x 250 m (w) x 18 m (h)
The work is part of the series Landscapes (1998).