THE TOUCH – exhibition opening 6 february

UP Gallery (Richardstraße 43/ Berlin Neukölln)
http://www.upgalleryberlin.com/en

Exhibition opening on friday 06 February, from 7 pm
Duration: 06 February – 5 March 2015, Thu-Sat, 4-8 pm

Works by: Magdalena Abakanowicz, Iwona Demko, Leszek Golec/Tatiana Czekalska, Natalia Janus – Malewska, Marek Kijewski/Kocur, Teresa Murak, Maria Pinińska – Bereś, Jan St. Wojciechowski

Curator: Eulalia Domanowska, Collaboration: Leszek Golec, Coordination: Michał Grabowski, Special acknowledgements: Stefania Zgudko.

Photo: M. Kijewski Autoportret w burgundowej muszli
by Marek Kijewski,  Kocur

“THE TOUCH”

 The exhibition, held by the Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko, focuses on the haptic in art. Appealing to the sense of touch exemplifies the transformations in the area of art over the past five decades, from Conceptualism and minimalism that primarily addressed our intellect, through to an art that stimulates our senses.

The sense of touch has for centuries been disregarded in Western culture as a potential for aesthetic experience, since we are strongly prejudiced against it. It is seen as the animalistic, carnal and less civilised human skill. And yet it has since time immemorial played a major role in art, in particular in sculpture. Touch is the key to our perception of space. We are able to recognise not only the tangible properties of objects but also the spatial relations between them. The subtlety and complexity of the spatial modelling of a sculpture becomes fully revealed only when it is “up close”, „at the touch of the hand”, and best yet in a hands-on experience.

Taking part in the exhibition are Polish artists associated with the Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko, one of the few institutions worldwide focusing on broadly construed sculpture, installation and spatial art. http://www.rzezba-oronsko.pl/

Photo: Jan St. Wojciechowski, Hands, 1973

We show sculptures, installations, objects, and videos by artists of different generations, both renowned ones such as Magdalena Abakanowicz and Teresa Murak, and young ones like Natalia Janus; their work addresses the haptic in a host of different ways. The old work, Hands by Jan S. Wojciechowski, comes still from the time of Conceptualism. It is accompanied by a Józef Robakowski film from The Living Gallery series, paradoxically depicting the author’s activity in the realm of sculpture. The duo Leszek Golec and Tatiana Czekalska have for years been active artists who pay close attention to our environment and opt for a harmonious co-existence with nature. Another duo, Marek Kijewski and Małgorzata Malinowska „Kocur“, have since 1996 used in their work organic forms and atypical sculpture materials such as candy or jelly beans, which produce very sensual effects. The art of Maria Pinińska–Bereś and Iwona Demko exemplifies the feminist current. The use of soft, „women’s“ materials underscores the haptic nature of art.

Photo: Avatar Biological II Klara podczs wystawy w galerii Art in General, New York 2002 by Tatiana Czekalsk + Leszek Golec

Participants: Magdalena Abakanowicz, Iwona Demko, Leszek Golec/Tatiana Czekalska, Natalia Janus–Malewska, Marek Kijewski/Kocur, Teresa Murak, Maria Pinińska–Bereś, Jan S. Wojciechowski

Curator: Eulalia Domanowska

Cooperation: Leszek Golec

Coordination: Michał Grabowski

Collaboration Galeria Monopol, Warsawa

Special acknowledgements to Ms. Stefania Zgudko.

Nomadism – Who can afford it? / Discussion in the UP Gallery 04.12.2014

Wahshi Kuhi: Public Performance. Warsaw. Photo by: Brian Connolly.

04.12.2014

Sławomir Brzoska
Mindaugas Gapse­vi­cius
Marek Goździewski
Wahshi Kuhi

Noma­dism means chan­ging a resi­den­tial loca­tion in search of better living condi­tions. Nomads travel to survive.

Accor­ding to Gilles Deleu­ze’s theory, noma­dism is a move­ment between the codes of the world in order to shift their meaning, to confuse, and, in more radical cases, to change the rules. Noma­dism stands for a radical, creative way of thin­king that resists existing power rela­tions.

In her book “Nomadic Subjects”, Rosi Braidotti deve­lops Deleu­zian thought from a femi­nist perspec­tive. She describes female subjec­ti­vity as a process of trans­gres­sing esta­bli­shed iden­ti­ties in the direc­tion of “alter­na­tive figu­ra­tions” in order to discover new repre­sen­ta­tions beyond the stan­dard phal­lo­cen­tric vision of the subject.

Noma­dism, for Deleuze and in Braidot­ti’s work, is an intel­lec­tual construct that is tied to a life­style regarded as inde­pen­dent of econo­mical and geopo­li­tical constra­ints.
There are diffe­rent nomads: those who enjoy the ability to move between cultural codes, langu­ages, and geogra­phical loca­tions, with a subjec­ti­vity that never becomes fixed, and others who are forced by poli­tical, economic or social reasons to flee.

I would like to pose the follo­wing questions: Who is actu­ally now in a posi­tion to freely choose a nomadic way of life? Is it only the privi­lege of the well-off?

Should the nomadic posi­tion be an uncom­for­table one, in a state of confu­sion and tension? Isn’t it para­do­xical that some nomads move within a stable and esta­bli­shed system as acade­mics, univer­sity students with scho­lar­ships, or artists invo­lved in the inter­na­tional art market, while other nomads dream of stabi­lity?

How can we use theories about noma­dism to describe the current situ­ation? How can we connect theory and art with the urgency of contem­po­rary nomadic expe­rience?

These and other questions I would like to discuss with the invited artists and cura­tors.

(Text: Zofia niero­dzinska, Vero­nika Albrandt)

10 Hours Talking Performance with Oak Tree

BRZOSKA / EXHIBITION 28.11.2014 / 7 PM

S. Brzoska, Pozostałości po pustynnym domostwie, Oman 2014

Weaving geometrical figures with kilometres of string, I have always emphasised the moment of work over the final effect. Work in the secluded gallery was a kind of meditation, when I had to watch almost every step, keep an eye on the tension of more and more lines, their parallelism. It required concentration on what is here – and – now. I have realised at some point that I am doing no less than travel, wandering in the spaces between the points set on walls, the floor and the ceiling in advance. The three-dimensional drawing is a trace of my body and hands left in the space. The installation is an image of wandering I had done, to the world that was visualised at its end.

The space is a kind of vessel which I fill in with the installation. I do not repeat the configuration in other spaces. Each work is based on different construction rules, dependent on natural characteristics I encounter in the space. I pay attention to architecture, construction details, windows’ arrangement, lighting etc., to find a form which will enter a dialogue with the surroundings.

No less important in my experiencing the world is real travelling. Desert areas became especially close to me since my first trip to India, Asia and then the Middle East. In 2002 I wrapped in wool a postglacial boulder found on the bank of the River Yenisei in Tuva. Hundreds of its lines were superimposed on the stone. This was how the first ‘”Journey sketch” came into being.

Stones have been archetypal since time immemorial. Its permanence was tied with ancestor worship. Working with stones I invoke the collective memory of the human race, where special kinds of stones formed a centre, a reference point. Wool is rather nomadic while stones are permanent. We may therefore say that the gesture of wrapping is a combination of the two rudimentary manners of existence of the human being.

Sławomir Brzoska

How do we work? / discussion in UP Gallery

„What I propose, there­fore, is very simple: it is nothing more than to think what we are doing.“
Hannah Arendt, Vita Activa

Idea: Roland Schefferski

Active participants: Veronika Albrandt, Christoph Boehm, Elena Gavrisch, Christian Hasucha, Ewa Kubiak, Dominik Lejman, Sarah Luedemann, Zofia nierodzińska, Klaus Pocher, Fried Rosenstock, Roland Schefferski

Job in Progress

„Job in progress“ is an exhibition from the Visual Conversations series, which spins around the abstract idea of the artist’s ‚work‘ as a philosophical/social/cultural problem. If we consider ‚work‘

by its definition as an effort supporting our biological survival, then we are not any different than any other of the species, which may mean that the only thing which could define the work as ‚human‘ is the creative process.  Artists work, often perceived as ‚leisure‘ in this context may appear as the only ‚work‘ possible.

Exhibition project at UP Gallery brings together artists and students living in Berlin and Poznan, with their specific cultural/generational perspective to this problem, effected by different environments with their perception of the „artist’s work“.

Show at the UP Gallery unfolds the opportunity for the broader discussion on the basis of talks with invited artists and theoreticians.

Participating artists:

Dominik Lejman

Sarah Ludemann

Ewa Kubiak

Piotr Marzol

Roland Shafferski

Justyna Smidowicz

REINIGUNGSGESELLSCHAFT (Henrik Mayer Martin Keil) ?

Marek Wasilewski

„Job in Progress“ ist eine Ausstellung aus der Serie Visual Coversations.

Sie thematisiert die abstrakte Idee „KünstlerIn bei der Arbeit“ als ein philosophisches/soziales/kulturelles Problem. Wenn wir „Arbeit“ als eine Anstrengung, die uns das Überleben ermöglicht verstehen, dann tun wir das genau so wie jedes andere Lebewesen. Das könnte bedeuten dass Arbeit, als eine menschliche Tätigkeit definiert, der kreative Prozess ist. Die Arbeit des Künstlers, die oft als „Hobby“ perzipiert wird, könnte in diesem Kontext einige mögliche „Arbeit“ sein.

Das Ausstellungsprojekt in der UP Gallery bringt Künstler und Studenten,

die in Berlin und Poznan leben, zusammen die mit ihrer besonderen Generationsperspektive dieses Problem betrachten.

Abhängig vom gesellschaftlichen Kontext variiert und beeinflusst es die Art in welcher sie die „Arbeit des Künstlers“ verstehen.

Die Ausstellung in der UP Gallery schafft die Möglichkeit für eine vielfältige Debatte im Bezug auf die Präsentationen der eingeladenen KünstlerInnen und Theoretiker.

Die beteiligte KünstlerInnen:

Dominik Lejman

Sarah Ludemann

Piotr Marzol

Roland Shafferski

Justyna Smidowicz

REINIGUNGSGESELLSCHAFT (Henrik Mayer Martin Keil) ?

Marek Wasilewski

„Colonial Wound, Solidarity in Eastern Europe“

In this year comes the 25th anni­ver­sary of the falling of the Berlin Wall.
Maybe it is a good moment to talk about the invi­sible or if you like not so symbolic present borders between the East and the West.
In the time when maps were printed on paper or canvas and hanged in the clas­srooms, the poli­tical borders were any abstrac­tion, they had their mate­ria­lity, they were often red or pink or black, thiner or dicker, they divided lands like a knife cuts a cake.
Now the poli­tical borders are gone from our sight, all lands from the google prospec­tive look more or less the same, there are no divi­sions between them except the geogra­phical ones, like rivers or moun­tains.
So were are the borders, are they inter­na­lised? Are they visible in the land­scape like in the film of Anna Raczyński „On the Road Between Poznan and Swiecko“? Are they economic ones? We know that workers from the Eastern Europe earn less money than their colle­agues from the West. Even though some EU enthu­siasts claim that there are no borders any more.
It is of course the situ­ation that describes the reality in the EU, outside it, in Europe, in Ukraine there is a war, people are dying in order to define their living space.
Addi­tio­nally, this topic came quite unexpec­tedly to us, we will talk about the borders of arti­stic freedom, what and where can an artist say. In commer­cial galle­ries borders of an arti­stic expres­sion are shaped by the market, in non-profit insti­tu­tions, that depend on state’s finan­cing the freedom of speech has to be confirmed by offi­cials. This deci­sions have a great influ­ence on the whole project and on the content of what could be „offi­cially“ publi­shed. How should artists deal with this?
What should happen in art galle­ries during such situ­ation?
We will discuss this and some other questions during the first discus­sion in the UPGal­lery in Berlin.

From the Manifest of K. Kubik and T.Rander

COLONIAL WOUND

Documentation of performance by Karolina Kubik and Tanel Rander, 31^st of May 2014 in Kaunas. 150 plates of mamaliga were symbolically served, referring to 150 NATO soldiers sent to each Baltic state. Mamaliga is a cheap East European peasant food, now mostly forgotten, but known as polenta, through the global marketing of Italian cuisine. Beside mamaliga, 150 stones were served. This serving was followed by struggle with car, its Polish registration plate was covered with military camouflage. The anonymous and militarized civil car was pushed by Tanel Rander, while Karolina Kubik stopped it with a wooden stick. Mamaliga, stones and sticks is what we have. We want to discuss how to use them!

Colonial wound is what unites Eastern Europe and the former 3^rd world. Colonial wound is what makes a difference between the East and the West. As coloniality affects people, it affects places. The wound includes human body and its location, and has different layers.

Layer 1: We come from Eastern Europe that occurred after the collapse of the Berlin Wall as a huge post-catastrophic space, facing underdevelopment, radical reforms, wars, instability.

Layer 2: After 2004, when most of the Eastern countries joined the EU, this reality was forgotten. Eastern Europe became “the former East”, a white and civilized area, acting like Western countries, using foreign labor, participating in the Western war machine, behaving as superior power in respect of this Eastern Europe that was left outside the EU.

Layer 3: Since 2014 Eastern Europe is back. Nobody uses the term “the former East”, when talking about sending NATO troops to the Baltics, Poland and Romania. War in Ukraine is called as “war in Europe”. The fear of war and death is now a reality in Eastern Europe.

We want to raise the following questions:

What is the task of culture and arts, while the society is being militarized, while politicians and the elite are turning people against each other? No doubt that the imperial war machine is expanding in the East and in the West. What is the task of us, artists? What should happen in art galleries during such situation?

We want to develop the culture of solidarity! Eastern Europe has been spectralized – there are single countries, that don’t notice each other. It is a set of dependancy between the East and the West that works through singularity. There is war in the place, where we live – the post-Socialist politicians have failed. The imperialist politics has failed. How strong is the culture? Are we producing illustrations for imperialist politics and global coloniality?

Russian artists – our countries, your politicians and ours are turning people against each other. And not only – our countries are being militarized, as if there are preparations for huge war. What can we do about it? Where is the cultural response that stands for humanity? Dadaism is not the way out of it.

Photos: Karolina Kubik, Tanel Rander, Colonial Wound, 2014, performance, Courtesy the artists and CREATurE Live Art, Kaunas

Borderline

Die UP GALLERY in Berlin ist im September dieses Jahres mit der Präsentation von Filmen der Fakultät für Animation der Universität der Kunst in Poznan offiziell eröffnet worden. Die Ausstellung wurde von Miłosz Margański kuratiert und ist noch bis zum 07.10 zu sehen.

Die nächste Ausstellung mit dem Titel „Borderline“ wird am 10.10.2014 um 19 Uhr eröffnet.

Border/line ist eine abstrakte Linie auf der Landkarte, meistens mit einer roten Farbe markiert, die sich zu transparentem Rosa an ihren Rändern verwandelt. Zumindest war es damals so, als die Karten noch auf Papier oder Leinen gedruckt wurden und in Schulklassen aufgehängt worden sind. Länder haben wie farbige Puzzle ausgesehen, die ihre Gestalt abhängig von dem gerade laufenden Machtspiel gewechselt haben, 1950 war Russland eine rote Föderation, 1990 eine grüne Demokratie, 1450 war Afrika noch auf keine Landkarte verzeichnet, außer Ägypten, dann  war sie komplett schwarz und im XIX. Jahrhundert wurde sie in den Puzzeln wie Europa aufgeteilt. Ein polnisches Puzzleteil war eine Zeitlang auch nicht dabei, an seine Stelle traten ein blaues Reich und eine rote Föderation, dann war es kurz zurück und verschwand wieder, letztendlich ist es runder geworden und nach links platziert, im Westen.

Selbstverständlich sind alle diese Informationen bedeutungslos, wenn man Google Maps benutzt. Im virtuellen Raum scheint die Welt grenzenlos zu sein und alle Länder sind mehr oder weniger grün. Im diesem Fall kann man die Grenze nur durch echte Ereignisse, die lokale Nähe zwischen den Menschen und durch das Leben, das auf beiden Seiten passiert, erfahren, was der universalen Perspektive von Google meistens entgeht.

In der Psychologie der Begriff „Borderline“ hat noch eine andere Bedeutung, dort taucht er oft zusammen mit der Persönlichkeit auf. Borderline disorder oder emotional instabile Persönlichkeitsstörung des Borderline-Typs ist die Bezeichnung für eine Persönlichkeitsstörung, die durch Impulsivität und Instabilität in zwischenmenschlichen Beziehungen, Stimmungen und im Selbstbild gekennzeichnet ist.

Menschen, die von dieser Krankheit betroffen sind, haben Probleme mit der Unterscheidung zwischen „Ich“ und „Du“, sie können keine Grenze zwischen ihrem psychischen Leben und der Wirklichkeit ziehen, die der äußere, gemeinsame Raum für alle Lebenwesen ist.

Borderline ist eine Differenz, die die Kultur ist, dank derer der menschliche Ausdruck (Sprache, Repräsentation) möglich ist, aber sie ist auch die Ursache  des Konflikts zwischen dem, was mit „Ich“ identifiziert werden kann und was dadurch dann als „Andere“ bezeichnet wird.

Die Arbeiten der KünstlerInnen, die im Rahmen der „Borderline“ Ausstellung präsentiert werden, untersuchen die äußere und immanente Grenze. Einige unterstreichen die Unterschiede, andere versuchen sie abzumildern, indem sie die Rationalität ins Spiel bringen und deren andere Seite – den Wahnsinn zeigen .

http://www.fundacja.uap.edu.pl

3×3

26.09.2014, 19 Uhr – die Eröffnung!

                                 

Das 3×3 Projekt präsentiert die Arbeiten der jüngsten Mitarbeiter der Fakultät für Animation an der Universität der Künste in Poznan. Jeder stellt drei Filme aus, die in den vergangenen Jahren hervorgebracht (produziert) worden sind. Sie beziehen eine große Auswahl an Medien, Kunstmaterialien und Techniken ein. Die selbstverständliche Vielfalt der Arbeiten ist eine Eigenschaft der ganzen Universität der Künste in Poznan nicht ausschließlich der Fakultät für Animation, an der die Vermischung der Disziplinen ein Kennzeichen der alltäglichen Praxis ist.

Robert Proch

Geboren in Bydgoszcz 1986. 2010 Absolvent der Fakultät für Multimediale Kommunikation an der Akademie der Künste in Poznan. Sein Abschlussprojekt machte er bei Prof. Hieronim Neumann. Er wohnt und arbeitet in Poznan. 2010 – 2013 war er Assistent des ersten Animationsstudios von Prof. Jacek Adamczak an der Universität der Künste in Poznan. Seine Arbeiten, die auf den Animationsfilm fokussieren, wurden auf zahlreichen Festivals präsentiert. Darüber hinaus ist er als Maler im öffentlichen Raum tätig, Stipendiat der KOLO Company (2008), des Ministeriums für Kultur und Nationalerbe (2009) und Bürgermeister der Stadt Poznan (2010).

Pawel Prewencki

Geboren in Kolobrzeg. 2010 Absolvent der Akademie der Künste in Poznan. 2010 Assistent im Zeichnungsstudio des Designinstituts in Koszalin, 2013 – Assistent im Animationsstudio der Universität der Künste in Poznan. Vielfacher Preisträger für seine Animationsfilme, wie: „Bird´s Song“ , „What Happens When Children Don´t eat Soup?“ und „Beach“.

Milosz Marganski

2010 Absolvent der Akademie der Künste in Poznan, wo er bis heute arbeitet.

Sein Oeuvre beinhaltet im weiten Sinne Bilder in Bewegung , von klassischen Animationen bis zu interaktiven Technologien. Seine Filme „Babel“ und „Therapy“ sind interaktive Geschichten, die auf der Unreal motion graphics engine (UMG) basieren.

Er ist an den sensorischen Aspekten der Animation interessiert und leitet Animationsworkshops. Seine Animationsfilme „City“ und „Ars Moriendi“ wurden auf zahlreichen polnischen und internationalen Festivals gezeigt.

The “3×3” project demon­strates the output of Robert Proch, Miłosz Margański and Paweł Prewencki, the youn­gest faculty members of the Anima­tion Depart­ment of the Univer­sity of Arts in Poznań. Each presents three films made over the past few years. They include a wide range of expres­sion media, art mate­rials and execu­tion tech­ni­ques. The natural diver­sity of the work shown is charac­te­ri­stic not only of the Anima­tion Faculty but also of the entire Univer­sity of Arts in Poznań, where the inter­min­gling of disci­plines and media has been a feature of daily arti­stic prac­tice.

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Robert Proch

Born in 1986 in Bydgoszcz. 2010 – a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań at the Faculty of Multi­media Commu­ni­ca­tion. He worked on his gradu­ation project under the super­vi­sion of Prof. Hieronim Neumann. Lives and works in Poznań. Between 2010–2013 assi­stant of the first anima­tion studio of Prof. Jacek Adam­czak at the Univer­sity of Arts in Poznań. His work, focused on animated film, has been shown at many festi­vals in Poland and abroad. Active as a painter, also in urban space. Scho­lar­ship holder of KOŁO Company (2008), Mini­ster of Culture and National Heri­tage (2009) and Mayor of Poznań (2010).

Paweł Prewencki

Born in Koło­brzeg. 2010 – a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań. 2010 – an assi­stant at the Studio of Art Drawing in the Design Insti­tute in Koszalin. 2013 – an assi­stant at the Anima­tion Studio at the Univer­sity of Arts in Poznań. A reci­pient of many awards for his animated films: Bird’s Song, What Happens When Chil­dren Don’t Eat Soup?, and Beach.

Miłosz Margański

2010 – a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań, where he works until today. His work includes wide­ly­-con­strued motion picture, ranging from clas­sical anima­tion through inte­rac­tive tech­no­lo­gies. His films Babel and Therapy are inte­rac­tive stories based on the Unreal motion graphics engine. Inte­re­sted in the sensory aspect in anima­tion and runs anima­tion work­shops. His animated films, City and Ars Moriendi, have been shown at nume­rous Polish and inter­na­tional festi­vals.