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20/10/2006

Robert Kusmirowski

Johnen + Schottle, Koln

Kanal

In occasion of his exhibition Kanal Robert Kusmirowski is converting the gallery spaces into a memorial cabinett for the canal workers of his hometown Lodz.

For historicizing the photographic documents on Polish canal engineering produced by himself Kusmirowski is referring to different time levels. It is the twenties of the last century as well as its seventies with a rather modernistic atmosphere. The large-scale photographs of the 1970s shows workers entering the subterraenean canal system, dressed in heavy workers’ clothing and posing with a worker hero’s attitude, while the small-scale photographs of the 1920s together with some relicts bring to life a similar world which however differs slightly both in its photographic quality as well as in the details of the setting, the gestures and the illumination.

But: both series form one single work of a today’s artist who irritates with subtleties the idea of timely coherence and who awakes doubts about the credibility of authenticity. The artist is enforcing this conflict by showing the obviously same persons within the documents from different times. And the film projected in the exhibition space is continuously shifting between these differerent time spheres, both in its substantial as well as in ist formal aspects. The artist is thus constructing a historical continuity and demolishing it at the same time.

Shifting between different time levels, incorporating also the viewers’ presence while viewing the works, mixing stilistic elements from different epochs proves an almost maniac activity of collecting and gathering things - both in substantial as well as in mental regards - combined with an impressing skill of inventiveness and an astonishing awareness of visuality. This also refers to the experience of reality that was characterized by scarcity and its overcoming through converting the destined purpose of an object. He is continuously travelling through the times with his work, so when he rode a bicycle from Paris to Leipzig this was a fine example of his artistic self-esteem. He converted the photographs derived from this action into historical documents, imitating real historic photographs but at the same time also creating actively a document that was tightly and exclusively bound to his action.

It is a fundamental artistic means of Robert Kusmirowski to play with the references both in contents and in form. Correspondingly the exact identity of the protagonists remains always vague and shifts between identification with its role and its recognition as an actor. Even if the viewer doesn’t know that the depicted person is the artist himself or an actor there is a strong irritation to be felt. The person of the artist however is constantly present, be it through the craftmanship he is using to fake the props for his set-ups, be it as an actor posing within the setting. This is both in Kanal where Kusmirowski appears as a worker in the subterraenean cathedral of the canal system suffering from the same scarcity that he might have experienced as the general living condition in his youth and that can be faced only with heroism.

After Kusmirowski did his spectacular Waggon for the 4th Berlin Biennial and investigated the Ornaments of Anatomy in the fictitious laboratory of Dr. Vernier at Kunstverein Hamburg Kanal is the first project the artist is doing in Cologne while another installation by Robert Kusmirowski will be opened next month at Migros Museum Zurich.

Image: Kanal - concrete room. Installation, dimensions variable, 12 photographs of different sizes mounted on wood projection of DVD Kanal

Johnen + Schoettle
Maria-Hilf-Str. 17 - Cologne

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