Katarzyna Kozyra
dal 16/11/2006 al 5/1/2007
Segnalato da
16/11/2006
Katarzyna Kozyra
Daad Galerie, Berlin
Only in Art, Dreams Come True. The exhibition's title refers to the utopia of personality transformation that can only become a reality in art. Since embarking on her new path, Kozyra has created 13 performances during which she has acted like a diva and sung well-known arias.
Only in Art, Dreams Come True. Performances and films 2003 - 2006
In the presence of the Maestro, Gloria Viagra and the Midgets of the Midget Gallery
Exhibition realized with financial support from the Polish Institute in Berlin
‘Anyone can dance, sing and act. And from my omnipotence comes a certainty that I
will succeed at whatever I choose to focus on, because I’m potentially talented in
every area."
When Katarzyna Kozyra came to Berlin in 2003, she wanted to spend her stipend money
on something she could only do within the DAAD Berlin Artists Program: on becoming
an opera diva! She spent her first stipend on professional singing lessons and
make-up. The Maestro, a polish singing master, and Gloria Viagra, the Berlin-based
drag queen, were her teachers during this stage of the project. This educational
process proved successful and led Katarzyna Kozyra to develop a new medium in her
artistic practice. She was known as a video artist before, and now she decided to
try a new form of performance involving operatic singing.
The exhibition's title refers to the utopia of personality transformation that can
only become a reality in art. Since embarking on her new path, Katarzyna Kozyra has
created 13 performances during which she has acted like a diva and sung well-known
arias. The performances have taken place throughout the world, from the opening of
the Carnegie International in Pittsburgh, USA, to the Teatro Sociale in Trento,
Italy, from the Kunsthalle in Vienna to the Barbican Center in London, from the
Zacheta in Warsaw to the Teatro Palladium in Rome. In some instances she transformed
normal places into stages, creating a kind of street theater: during traditional
feasts in Florence and Regensburg, she organized processions with a fake Madonna and
suddenly appeared amidst them dressed like an evil "queen of the night,
singing the relevant aria from Mozart's "The Magic Flute. During a
private birthday party for Gloria Viagra at a Berlin club, she popped out of a
gift-b
ox dressed like Gloria and proceeded to perform a striptease on stage. In recent
videos she appeared as Snow White surrounded by five little dwarves, and as a young
cheerleader assisted by a group of naked athletes. The concept of transformation is
also expressed by figures like Gloria Viagra, the Maestro or the Midgets, real
persons who are simultaneously fairytale characters. All Kozyra's performances
manifest the idea of metamorphosis, of representing a different self.
Along with documentation of the 13 performances that took place between 2003 and
2006, this exhibition at the DAAD Gallery will include a new video work that will
constitute a kind of summary of Katarzyna Kozyra's new medium and include interviews
with the people who worked with her during development of this new project.
Katarzyna Kozyra was born 1963 in Warsaw, Poland, and lives Warsaw, Berlin and
Trento. She has been participating in international group exhibitions since 1996.
Recently she presented the performance The Midget Gallery at the Frieze
Art Fair in London and at the Berlin Biennale.
She is represented by the Postmasters Gallery in New York.
For further information, go to http://www.katarzynakozyra.com
Opening 17.11.2006, 18 - 20
DAAD Gallery
Zimmerstr. 90/91 - Berlin