The Forgetting of Proper Names
dal 24/1/2012 al 17/3/2012
Segnalato da
24/1/2012
The Forgetting of Proper Names
Calvert 22, London
A two-month season exploring ways in which the past is reshaped over time and transformed across cultural boundaries, exploring the artists' varied approaches to re-imagining historical events. Here investigations into the relationships between live events and objects, the use of the body as subject in performance, and the use of sound as a narrative tool form recurring threads.
curated by Lina Džuverović and Dominik Czechowski
The Forgetting of Proper Names is a two-month season exploring ways in which the past is reshaped over time and transformed across cultural boundaries. Centred around the London-premiere of the work of Wojciech Bąkowski (b. 1979), Anna Molska (b. 1983) and Agnieszka Polska (b. 1985), the season explores the artists’ varied approaches to re-imagining historical events. Here investigations into the relationships between live events and objects, the use of the body as subject in performance, and the use of sound as a narrative tool form recurring threads.
Now in their late twenties and early thirties, the three artists grew up in post-communist Poland. Although close in age and often employing similar media and materials, each artist interacts with their area of focus in individualised and diverse ways. The season brings together performances, screenings, a reading group and discussions that explore, through a wide range of approaches, the history of the avant-garde, and the nature of forgetting in the context of present-day Poland.
Wojciech Bąkowski's animated films record acute observations of his most immediate and intimate surroundings. Bąkowski, who is perhaps the most prolific and visible member of Poznań’s vibrant art and music community, weaves together video, audio performance, sound-based installation. In his diverse practice, reflections on everyday rituals, as well as the realm of the artist's own consciousness form a narrative and contextual framework. His works offer a crude, existential and subjective expression of the world, and highlights the relationships between performance and video, body and space.
Anna Molska's video works are filmed performances. She invites ordinary people, instead of professional actors, to be protagonists, thus allowing for an authenticity, uncertainty even, and natural spontaneity that is an integral part of the work. She reconsiders revolutionary thought's power to cause social change through investigations of avant-garde visual and political idioms.
Agnieszka Polska's visually powerful explorations of lost times or half-forgotten figures of the Polish avant-garde, turn to how the past is fictionalised and re-worked. Her animated videos juxtapose black-and-white photographs of performances, and illustrations from old textbooks and magazines, evoke a sense of melancholia, and a longing for something that perhaps never was.
The Forgetting of Proper Names is curated by Lina Džuverović and Dominik Czechowski and is accompanied by an in-depth publication and digital resources, including a diverse events programme featuring curator and artist talks, symposia, a weekly reading group and special performances by Wojciech Bąkowski and Agnieszka Polska.
The season is supported by the Polish Cultural Institute in London.
More information about the programme of accompanying events on the web site.
The programme has been kindly supported by the Polish Cultural Institute in London and The Courtauld Institute of Art Research Forum.
Image: Agnieszka Polska. Plunderer's Dream, 2011. HD video, 03:56 min. Courtesy ZAK|BRANICKA
For all press enquires please contact:
Giulia Crossley +44 (0)207 613 2141 press@calvert22.org
Calvert 22 Foundation
22 Calvert Avenue, London E2 7JP
Opening Hours:
Wednesday-Sunday: 12pm – 6pm
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Entrance free