Spojrzenia 2009 – The Deutsche Bank Foundation Award
Wojciech Bąkowski, Olaf Brzeski, Bogna Burska, Wojtek Doroszuk, Anna Konik, Anna Molska, Zorka Wollny
Vernissage: 29th January 2010, 6 pm
Exhibition open untill 3rd April 2010
It’s about selecting the best of the best – Dorota Jarecka, Gazeta Wyborcza
Views – an award initiated in 2003 by the Deutsche Bank Foundation – is the largest and one of the most prestigious prizes in the field of visual arts in Poland. The biannual competition nominations select the most interesting young Polish artists whose recent work critics and curators consider particularly noteworthy. The works entered in the competition are then presented at the Zachęta gallery in Warsaw.
Maria Brewińska, the curator of the exhibition presenting the work of the seven artists nominated for the Views 2009 competition writes: “The [2009 nominations] turned out to be even more surprising than in previous years, when the aim was to present current Polish art, the dynamics of its development, its various trends, forms and issues. This fourth competetion focussed on artists who, in a variety of different ways, use film as a primary medium.” This emphasis on video and media images is what led to the WRO Art Center’s involvement with the Views 2009 exhibition – the first time the gallery has hosted a group exhibition of young Polish art. The show will take a new form in Wrocław, with a different arrangement and a somewhat different set of works, which will also be shown in urban space.
The winner of Views 2009 was Wojciech Bąkowski, who was awarded the grand prize of 15,000 euros. Anna Molska was awarded the second prize: a three-month work stay at the Villa Romana in Florence. Wojtej Doroszuk won the audience prize.
The premiere of Olaf Brzeski’s new work
The Wrocław artist Olaf Brzeski designed a new piece specially for the exhibition, which was produced in cooperation with WRO. The large-scale print displayed on the faςade of the building next to the WRO Art Center is a re-presentation of Brzeski’s sculpture in Zachęta’s Lower Silesian collection. Although his oeuvre also includes video and film works, Brzeski is best known for his installations and sculptures, which he deforms and topples from their pedestals, exhibiting them in ways that defy museum standards.
Wojciech Bąkowski creates animated films using the “non-camera technique”; in the films he chants remarkable passages that he writes himself. He also creates acoustic spaces – “burrows” – where he shows films, presents audio performances and installations using musical equipment.
Anna Molska reworks communist/modernist utopian traditions, creating and rearranging historical allusions. A new arrangement of a joint work by the two View 2009 winners – an audiovisual installation called Finished [Ukończono] – will be presented at the WRO Art Center.
Wojtek Doroszuk makes “nomad” films that document images, people and situations. The films deal with such issues as the Other, alienation, linguistic and cultural differences and the taboos surrounding death.
Anna Konik creates lengthy film series from which she constructs multi-screen audiovisual installations that form nearly journalistic sequences or poetic video productions. Bogna Burska has recently been focussing primarily on the found-footage technique, reworking and arranging fragments of commercial films into new narrative constructions. Zorka Wollny’s ouevre includes a series of feminist-oriented films as well as film and audio documentation of a cycle of performances about museums and galleries.
Views at the WRO Art Center
Anna Molska
Born 1983 in Prudnik. Lives and works in Warsaw
Education
2003–2008 Faculty of Sculpture, Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (graduated from
Atelier of Grzegorz Kowalski)
2004 Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Stuttgart
Wojciech Bąkowski | www.myspace.com/wojciechbakowski
Born 1979 in Poznań. Lives and works in Poznań
Education
2000–2005 Faculty of Multimedia Communication, Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań
Completed, 2009
video installation, 15:20
Production: Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Deutsche Bank Foundation, Deutsche Bank Polska S.A.
Olaf Brzeski
Born 1975 in Wrocław. Lives and works in Wrocław
Education
1994–1995 Faculty of Architecture, Wrocław University of Technology
1995–2000 Faculty of Sculpture, Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław
From the Cycle: Little Orphans, 2010
co-operation: Krzysztof Solarewicz
photography, hard-solvent ink print, frontlit banner
production: WRO Art Center, co-operation: Zachęta Lower Silesia Fine Arts Association
Wojciech Doroszuk
Born 1980 in Głogów. Lives and works in Cracow
Education
2001–2006 Faculty of Painting, Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow
Raspberry Days, 2008
video, 18:30
Special Features, 2009
video, 33:00
Sümela Restaurant, 2007
video, 3:50
Cosy-Wasch, 2007
video, 4:00
Gençlik Park, 2008
video, 13:00
Birkaç Yer (Kilka miejsc / Some Places), 2007
video, 22:00
Tumor Imaginis, 2008
video, 29:30
Dissection Theatre, 2006
video, 10:20
Anna Konik | www.annakonik.art.pl
Born 1974 in Lubliniec. Lives and works in Berlin, Warsaw, and Dobrodzień.
Education
Faculty of Sculpture, Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (studied under the supervision of Professor Grzegorz Kowalski and Professor Krzysztof M. Bednarski)
2008-2009 Lectures during International Summer Academy of Fine Arts, Salzburg
2009 Rudolf Arnheim Associate Professor at the Humboldt University, Berlin.
Our Lady’s Forever, 2007
co-operation: Cezary Chojnowski
video, 14:34
Single-channel version, screened at the 61st Locarno International Film Festival
Actors: Karoline O’Sullivan, Cian McConn, Fincha Carter, Picabia Lahart
Support: Cork Film Centre, Ireland; National Culture Centre, CCA Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw; Pépinières européennes pour jeunes artistes, National Sculpture Factory, Cork
Ewa Witkowska about the Anna Konik’s film
Bogna Burska
Born 1974 in Warsaw. Lives and works in Gdańsk
Education
1996–2001 Akademia Sztuk Pięknych w Warszawie (dyplom w Gościnnej Pracowni Leona Tarasewicza) / Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (graduated from Guest Atelier of Leon Tarasewicz)
12’30’’, 2009
co-operation: Michał Januszaniec
found footage, 12:30
God Is Vain, 2006-2007, found footage, 23:28
Shooting Star, 2006-2008, found footage, 47:25
From the series: A Game with Shifting Mirrors
co-operation: Michał Januszaniec
Zorka Wollny
Born 1980 in Cracow. Lives and works there.
Co-founder of 36,6 Foundation
Education
2001–2006 Faculty of Painting, Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow
Ballada na gmach Zachęty
co-operation: Anna Szwajgier
performance / concert, 2009
Film Noir, 2009
video, 20:30
Six Silhouettes Against the Backdrop of a Collection, 2009
performance, 4:12
Museum of Art in Łódź
Museum, 2006/7
video documentation of a performance, 20:05
National Museum in Cracow
Lucie Mad, 2008
video 8:00
Curator: Maria Brewińska
Co-operation: Julia Leopold
Coordination of the exhibition at WRO: Agnieszka Kubicka-Dzieduszycka
Exhibition design at WRO: Zbigniew Kupisz
