Artur Żmijewski – 1966, Warsaw, Poland / Paweł Althamer, 1967, Warsaw, Poland
Untitled (from the series Polish School of Collage), 2022
Collage and acrylic on cardboard, 100 x 70 cm
Acquisition: Gift by the artists
Reference: 05260
In their personal artistic careers, Artur Żmijewski and Paweł Althamer, are among the most renowned Polish artists. During a joint residency in Japan in 2017, they began to work occasionally on joint projects of a similar nature, which involved making spontaneously generated collages using various illustrated art, medical, historical, and other magazines or books. The collaborative project “Polish School of Collage”, was realized as a residency from July 1 to 15, 2022, and took place in one of the gallery spaces of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Skopje, according to the already established hourly schedule, as in the rest of their projects, i.e. every day from 2 pm until around midnight and most of the time with the presence of museum visitors. During those two weeks of working together, the artists created multiple collages on cardboard using acrylic paints and photo-cuts. Visitors were invited to bring some of these materials, thereby contributing to the creation of the works. The result of this process is a series of 30 collages with clippings from history books, art magazines, geographic atlases, maps, posters, photographs, educational charts, medical illustrations etc. These thickly layered images can be seen as references to the theme of the medieval “dance macabre” and to events or some general significance absorbed from the local (historical) context. The works were finally exhibited at the same gallery of the Museum of Contemporary Art Skopje from 14. July to 25. August 2022: msu.mk/exhibition/artur-zmijewski
Biographies
Artur Żmijewski (1966) is a visual artist based in Warsaw, with a rich artistic career, who is focused on creating installations, composed of photography, film and video. In his works, he exposes the world of “others”, who often go unnoticed, insisting on the conscious participation of art in social life. He records their everyday life, showing how physical and mental limitations condemn these people to be marginalized in society. Through experiments with the participation of selected groups, he tries to understand difficult experiences and taboo topics. He has exhibited at some of the most important art events, such as the Venice Biennale and Documenta in Kassel, and he was the curator of the Berlin Biennale in 2012. His works are included in the collections of some of the most renowned art institutions in the world, such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Tate Modern in London, and the Neue Pinakothek in Munich.
Paweł Althamer (1967) is a visual artist based in Warsaw. He works in different media such as sculpture, performance, installation, video, and apart from the media, his works are also diverse in terms of form. He creates sculptural self-portraits, appears in performance and video, seeking to experience the materiality of the body and define his own mental boundaries. Through actions involving entire communities, he wants to create social communities, confronting people through art. He questions the meaning of monumental monuments according to the scale of his works and the randomness of his materials. In his works he also references Beuys’ social sculpture and the legacy of Oskar Hansen’s ‘Open Form. He can also be described as an artist with an affinity for ‘relational aesthetics’. He participated in the most important art exhibitions, including Documenta 10 (1997), the Venice Biennale (2003, 2013), the Berlin Biennale (2012), Skulptur Projekte Münster (2017). He has also won numerous awards, such as the biennial Vincent van Gogh Prize for Contemporary Art in Europe in 2004.
