calendario eventi  :: 

X

10/5/2007

Pawel Ksiazek

Zak Gallery, Berlin

Africanized Honey Bees

The africanized honey bee originated 50 years ago from a promising crossbreed of European and African bees and spread themselves astoundingly fast throughout the american continent. Thus the highly productive and adaptive race proved also to be exceptionally aggressive. The danger of the "killer bees" was played up by the media, which provoked fear and exaggerated precautionary measures.

Introduced as a beneficial improvement, the exaggeration of the represented danger now covers up the factual usefulness of the bees. In a scene from his film "Bowling for Columbine," Michael Moore compares this process with the emergence of racial hatred. Paweł Książek reverts back to this analogy, which is the defining point of his newest series: "Africanized Honey Bees," or AHB.

For many years Książek has worked consistently on self-contained series that deal with specific topics. His painting and installations translate the materials of his research into images of great expressiveness and ambiguity. Through the unusual contextualisation, seemingly inconspicious details are provided a profound and uncomfortable meaning.

In AHB Książek works with the image of the "killer bee" as the American media conveys it, and draws p p arallels to the representation of African Americans in the history of American film and photography. They are images that lay claim to objectivity and thus always clearly polarize: negative aspects are placed in the foreground and positive sides are faded out. This procedure simultaneously challenges and reflects the development of xenophobia and racism

In his abstract image-language, the artist remains withheld. He does not insist upon one possible evaluation, but confronts his viewers with the core problem. We are meant to draw our own conclusions. Książek himself compares his work with a judicial proceeding in which he is not passing the judgment, but reviews the evidence, and assigns the viewer the roll of a jury member. If even this approach permits an act of syllogism, or if the judgment should not be unanimous, then the process still remains independent and creative in itself. The reflections provoked cause the viewer to continue thinking, and draw logical parallels, which are worth following further.

Paweł Książek (born 1973) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow (Poland) and at the HfG Offenbach (Germany, DAAD scholarship). In the last year he took part in the most important group shows concerning Polish painting, and was presented in individual exhibitions in Poland and abroad. With the series "Africanized Honey Bees" ŻAK GALLERY shows the artist's first solo exhibition in Germany.

Zak Gallery
Linienstrabe 148 - Berlin
Free admission

stampa

permanent link