calendario eventi  :: 

X

12/7/2012

Two solo exhibitions

Bunkier Sztuki Contemporary Art Gallery, Krakow

Nicolas Grospierre
The City Which Does Not Exist

Curator: Lidia Krawczyk

When Charles Fourier was building his vision of an ideal city, he based it on the belief that co-operation and concern for the common good would result in a successful society. Fourier began from the premise that man is fundamentally good and that in order to bring out the best in him it is necessary to provide him with functional life-and-work spaces. The theoretician based his design of a Phalanstère, the building to house the ‘phalanx’, a perfect co-operative community, on a clearly delineated division of spaces which performed specific functions. Each building served a particular purpose, which fostered the development of optimal human traits. Fourier theoretised that it was poor housing conditions that was at the root of the poor state of society. The reference to the utopian socialist Charles Fourier is not coincidental. His blueprint of the perfectly planned city had been amongst the ideas which had inspired modern movement architects. They believed that a good design can affect people’s behaviour and that architecture can shape a new, and different, society.

In his exhibition The City Which Does Not Exist, Nicolas Grospierre creates various narrations around the theme of the ideals of modernist architecture. He constructs his statement in parallel to that of the architect, who creates his vision of a city on paper. The artist creates non-existent buildings. He brings to life an actual city, meant to represent utopian premises, never before fully implemented. Grospierre documents realised utopias, the effects of theoretical and architectural fascination with modernism; an attempt to create a better reality. He photographs buildings which had been supposed to confirm human authority and potential. In the photographs, we will be able to see the architecture of Brasilia – a perfect example of putting into practice the modernist ideals of a modern city, Soviet architecture, which aimed to create perfect living conditions for the New Man, as well as images of Polish modernist churches, testimony to the implementation of a new chapter in the life of the Roman Catholic Church, following the Second Vatican Council. To the utopian projects, the artist has added the ingredient left out – seemingly – by the utopian dreamers: flesh-and-blood man, with his passions, drive for power and inclination towards anarchy and destruction. Such unusually-constructed works as K-Pool and Co. or Volkenbrasil are precisely the realisations of those utopias, testimony to the possibility of creating that which is impossible in practice. However, the state of bliss is only fleeting, as the buildings turn out to be anything but comfortable to live in.

What we will see at the exhibition is ‘modernism applied’, architecture as she is used and worn. As political trends change, buildings fall into disuse and oblivion; become objects that nobody knows what to do with. The artist takes on board the architecture-on-paper, the town as an ideological concept, and a caricature of a utopia which has lost in confrontation with humans.

The exhibition at Bunkier Sztuki will be a narrative about two aspects of our reality – about being lost in the trap of modernism, and about the failure of utopia. The artist has structured the exhibition along the progression from euphoria and fascination with the novelty of the form, via confusion and feeling lost, to the failure of hope. In fact, we are not entirely sure whether the reality that we are dealing with here has been thought up by the artist or perhaps by an architect. Is what we see solely a theoretical and utopian vision of urban space or is it, indeed, its dystopian application?

Nicolas Grospierre (born in 1975 in Geneva). Photographer, graduate of sociology. In 1997-1999 studied at the Institut d’Études Politiques in Paris and graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science in Russian and Post-Soviet studies. Since 1999 has lived in Poland. Considered a ‘new documentalist’. Recipient of the Award of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (2009) and the Golden Lion at the 11th Architectural Biennale in Venice for the best national pavilion. Lives and works in Warsaw.

---

Laura Pawela
The Sky Won’t Fall in, even if You Walk Backwards

Curator: Lidia Krawczyk

The title of Laura Pawela’s exhibition comes from An Adventure of a Decent Man, a surreal humorous yarn by Stefan and Franciszka Themerson. The film shows a clerk who, inspired by a telephone conversation, embarks on travelling backwards, arousing intense protest and the dismay of the public. Society – in the film represented by the group of protesters – clearly rejects all forms of unusual behaviour out of fear that the sky may proverbially ‘fall in’ – the orderly status quo may collapse; a symbolic catastrophe. In spite of his revolutionary decision, the anarchist protagonist thrives, and his contrarian approach triggers a cascade of all sorts of surreal actions.

Laura Pawela’s exhibition in Bunkier Sztuki is a dada collage. There in no point in looking for any linear narrative. The artist plays with codes and the cultural impositions of meaning. This is an exhibition about objects and how artists use them, investing them with cult significance. This is a topsy-turvy exhibition – it mocks social prejudices and utopian glorification of the vision of eternal happiness. It ridicules utopian thinking, spiritual salvation and faith in the happy ever-after.

The exhibition is also a voice in the discussion about the power of art, in its assumed ability to transform the world, and that of the artist, who often poses as a pedagogue, labouring under the delusion that art is for all and is the be-all and end-all that can save the world. Finally, the exhibition provides a comment on the avant-garde potential of art; it poses the question as to whether it is still possible to believe in the revolutionary potential of art.

The presented exhibits are site-specific, designed with the Bunkier project in mind: collages, a series of photographs and a number of the artist’s most recent films, inspired by, amongst others, the beliefs of the utopian 19th century settlers of America. The viewer will only be able to access the works via a long, dark corridor. The lay-out of the exhibition will thus acquire a status equivalent to that of the works themselves. Each element, however small, will have the status of a work of art. The exhibition will be constructed like a stage set for an obscure spectacle in which the viewer himself will be the chief protagonist; his main asset – his ability to interpret ironically all that he sees.

Laura Pawela (born 1977 in Rybnik. Multimedia artist. Graduated from the Art Institute and the Department of Painting and Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław (2004). In 2006 she managed the Eugeniusz Geppert Visitors’ Workshop at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław. In 2011 granted the stipend ‘Young Poland’ by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. Lives and works in Warsaw.

More information: www.laurapawela.com

Image: Laura Pawela, Death in the Garden, 2011, photography

Opening: 13 July 2012, 8 pm

Bunkier Sztuki Contemporary Art Gallery
Plac Szczepanski 3a - Krakow
Tuesday to Sunday 11 am – 6 pm.

stampa

permanent link