"KR WP", DVD, master Betacam, 7'30'', 2000

A visual artist, born on the 26th of May, 1966 in Warsaw, Poland. From 1990 to 1995 Żmijewski studied at the Sculpture Department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, receiving his diploma under the tutelage of professor Grzegorz Kowalski. In 2006 Żmijewski represented Poland at the 51st Art Biennale in Venice, Italy. He is currently Art Director for "Krytyka Polityczna", a socio-political magazine held in high regard in Poland. In 2007, he published a collection of interviews with various artists entitled "Drżące ciała" ("Shivering Bodies"). Żmijewski is a regular collaborator of the Foksal Gallery Foundation. He works and lives in Warsaw.

Artur Żmijewski seems to be an artist always in search of the next modality of artistic expression, ever striving to amplify the impact of his art on its subjects, enlarging its territory beyond its conventional borders. Having studied sculpture at first, he went on to continue in film and photography, a medium he found more suitable to represent the contemporary world around him and its accompanying challenges. During the 90's, Żmijewski was a leading force in the realm of critical art, his point of departure being the problems of body and The Other. He summed up this period in his manifesto, "Applied Social Arts", developing a fresh attitude of social activism. Żmijewski's more recent works continue to manifest this new approach.


Even in his early days at the art academy, Żmijewski had a keen sense of the challenges dogging the role of art and the sense of artistic activity. It was his professor, Grzegorz Kowalski, who introduced Żmijewski to the ideas of Oskar Hansen, Kowalski's academic teacher, and the author of the Open Form theory. Kowalski proposed assignments to his students which creatively developed the didactic ideas of Hansen, as well as those of Jerzy Jarnuszkiewicz, and were aimed at exposing the students to collaborative activities and the process of artistic dialogue while leaving the choice of artistic modality to the students themselves.

One of Kowalski's group projects that Żmijewski worked on, was called "Obszar wspólny, obszar własny" ("Common Area, Private Area") and was based on a dialogue involving no words. For this exercise Żmijewski created moveable assemblage-sculptures that would engage in simple interactions with the audience - imitating physiological processes or telling "a story of the decay of a living thing" ("Studia aktu" / "Studies in an Act", 1993). Attempting to come up with solutions to Kowalski's projects, Żmijewski started using performance techniques. In 1994 he arranged a series of performances addressed to particular people - "Monologi do ludzi" / "Monologues to people".

Later on, Żmijewski built on these experiences when he started doing photography, objects using photography, and films conceptualizing the human body as something malleable, purely physical. For his diploma thesis "40 szuflad" / "40 Drawers" (1995) (illustrations) he created an object reminiscent of a library catalogue cabinet. In every drawer the artist placed photos of naked people contorting each other's bodies. Opening the drawer required some effort and positioned the spectator in the role of a voyeur. The same issue was tackled again in "Powściągliwość i praca" / "Temperance and Work" (1995). Here, it was Żmijewski himself and Katarzyna Kozyra who were contorting their bodies, forming "a peculiar catalogue of various deformations". "It's a sort of sexual act, as well, as these two people, petting one another in new ways, are looking for new forms of pleasure. Of course, this eroticism is very misplaced..." - said the artist.

One definitely has to consider these works as part of a dialogue with the work of other students and artists educated by professor Kowalski. Among Kowalski's students at around the same time were: Kozyra, Jacek Adamas, Paweł Althammer, Jacek Markiewicz, Katarzyna Górna, Monika Zielińska.

"Karolina", DVD, master DV, 8'8'', 2001

Żmijewski's work was, from the very beginning, complemented by intellectual reflection, the springboard for which became "Czereja", a periodical published by Żmijewski, with short-term contributions from Monika Zielińska and Katarzyna Kozyra. The magazine published articles about the works of other artists - likewise, students of professor Kowalski - including texts on other controversial thesis diplomas from 1993, comments on the assignments, and interviews made, largely, by Żmijewski. By 1998 six editions were published.

"Czereja" was also a platform for developing Żmijewski's own attitude towards art, notably, in confrontation with Kowalski. For his theoretical diploma thesis, Żmijewski presented a text entitled "Favorite Art Theory", published later in "Magazyn Sztuki". Żmijewski wrote, "I am intrigued by this space where the substance of life mixes with the synthesized world of art". For Żmijewski, art was a factor influencing the fabric of society. Emphasizing, however, that "the word 'art' should be in quotes, as it is only its outer form that sets it apart from other modes of human activity". He highlighted the role of spectators and how they experience the work of art. He saw the role of art as that of analyzing current problems, whereby,

"Art isn't in any respect better than other industries. It too, just as well, produces objects of a limited validity. (...) cars get rusty, and the work of art becomes devoid of meaning. Or, maybe not meaning, but the need for coming-to-being specific to its times."

While still a student Żmijewski started organizing exhibitions of his friends from Kowalski's class, and later he did so for other artists engaged in "critical art". Some of the exhibitions, like "Rzeźba ruchliwa" ("Moving Sculpture", 1994), took place in Galeria Czereja, the hall of the former "Stolica" cinema in Warsaw. The most famous exhibition "Ja i AIDS" ("Me and AIDS") with works by Kozyra, Althamer and Kowalski was closed by the cinema management (it was later reopened in Jacek Markiewicz's a.r.t. gallery in Płock). Żmijewski showed "Ja i AIDS" / "Me and AIDS" (illustrations), a film depicting the fear of the deadly disease and the dread of intimate contact with another person. In the film there were three naked people (two men and a woman) running and colliding against each other at full speed. "Well, meeting another person is a painful experience" - the artist had to say. In later years, Żmijewski would organize or collaborate on exhibitions, like "Parteitag" (1997), "Sexxx" (2000), "Polska" (2002).


One of Kowalski's teaching principles entailed the freedom to choose the means of artistic expression. It was in the 90's that video started to play an important role in the works of many artists, films being a vital part of the diploma theses of Kozyra and Althamer. After graduating, Żmijewski, as well, became increasingly interested in photography and film, the latter medium taking priority. At the time of the exhibition "Rzeźbiarze fotografują" he wrote:

"I don't sculpt any more - I make films - the world is too complicated to sculpt. One has only to make some photos to realize that sculpture is not able to catch up with reality. Photography and film wiped out any faith in sculpture I had. They ridiculed it."

Żmijewski's films are made in a very specific way. "I film situations I have provoked and set in motion", he explains. Joanna Mytkowska commented on his working method, "He devises a scenario, sets up a situation, and introduces a group of people into it to see how they react, how they behave, how they cope." This is why the films have the qualities of "directed documentaries." Sometimes the arranged situations are more elaborate. Sometimes the films are more like traditional documentaries.

"I'm not particularly interested in digressions on the subject whether what I do meets the criteria for documentary film; for me this is not really necessary. (...) What is most important for me is the content, communication. Entering into discussion. Taking the floor. Speaking out in the matter."

Somewhere else he remarked: "Art is, above all, thinking, participation in public life, reacting to the problems of this society. But also contestation." When asked about the feelings of the viewers of his films and the shock that is often their reaction to them, he says: "I don't create entertainment for the mass public. Seeing to the well-being and comfort of viewers isn't my intention."


In the late 90's and in the beginning of the 21st century, Żmijewski's works oscillated around disquieting issues, touching on taboos, and uncovering the presence of The Other in the society. In this respect they matched perfectly the critical art movement, represented by Katarzyna Kozyra, Zbigniew Libera and Grzegorz Klaman. Even in this context Żmijewski's works have to be seen as among the most radical. It's no accident that Izabela Kowalczyk's book on the critical art of the 90's is entitled "Ciało i władza" ("Body and Power"), both overlapping fields being the area intensely explored by the early works of Żmijewski.

"The Singing Lesson", DVD, master Betacam, 14', 2001

The bodies in his movies are handicapped, crippled, sick and old. It's the bodies of The Others that only rarely find their way into contemporary visual culture. The power that is exercised over it is dispersed, panoptical. It's the Foucault-like power-knowledge that is not ordained from the above but rather spreads horizontally in the society. Żmijewski was especially interested in how this power was implemented in the visual field and how the imposed constraints could be overcome. Thus his films have become not only a description of a certain fragment of reality, the fragment being uncovered and introduced to the popular discourse, but also an activity encumbered with a certain ideological message and inscribed in it existential question.

In "Ogród botaniczny / ZOO" ("Botanical Garden / ZOO" (illustrations), 1997), Żmijewski put together video material showing animals in the zoo and mentally handicapped children. By portraying their isolation from the rest of society, while also questioning this portrayal and putting it in context of voyeurism, he posed questions about bodily constraints, its powers, and lack thereof. These issues were later developed in films and photo series. In "Oko za oko" / "Eye for an Eye" (illustrations) (1998) Żmijewski portrayed disabled bodies of men without legs and arms. In photographs they are replaced with arms and legs of healthy men. Thus came to existence strange creatures with many legs and many heads. Another consequence was the embarrassing contact between the fit and healthy and the crippled. The healthy "were introduced to the greatest intimacy, the most shameful contact, the place of the most dreadful humiliation - they touch their scars". In the film there is a sequence of a woman assisting a man while he's taking a bath; the man doesn't have feet and fingers. "Na spacer" / "Out for a Walk" (illustrations) (2001) was filmed at a rehabilitation center for paraplegics. In the course of rehabilitation, the sick are repeatedly taken for a walk by strong, healthy men. The whole ordeal is a big effort for both parties. As Adam Szymczyk said,

"Żmijewski constructs questions around the limits of help, compassion, and empathy, questioning, also, the very mechanism of the rehabilitation process - the equating of disparities – which transforms into physical oppression."

But it's probably the film "Karolina" (illustrations) that strikes one as the most drastic of Żmijewski's films. Its protagonist suffers from osteoporosis, experiencing a terrible, hardly bearable pain. She is administered more and more morphine which slowly dooms her to death.

In another film, "KR WP" (illustrations) ("Kompania Reprezentacyjna Wojska Polskiego / Polish Military Color Guard", 2000), the issue of power over body returns in a different way. Here, a group of soldiers dressed in uniforms go marching, at first, only to do the same later in a closed room naked. "The effect is merely comical. The system no longer has any control over them. They have regained their nationalized bodies. Their bodies belong to them again." "Sztuka kochania" / "The Art of Love" (illustrations) (2000) was a film made for the exhibition "Sexxx". It deals with a phenomenon of elderly patients - suffering from Parkinson and other diseases - attempting transference.

"The film tries to show, how these sick people, by means of undesirable and uncontrollable nervous twitches, try to pass on to the others some pleasure. People suffering from Parkinson disease fondle one another with those involuntary tics."

Another attempt at breaking free from the disabilities of the body, but which was doomed to failure, was "Lekcja śpiewu" / "Singing Lesson" (illustrations) (2001). Out of a group of deaf people Żmijewski gathered a choir of "singers" who performed "Kyrie" from "The Polish Mass" by Jan Maklakiewicz in the Augsburg-Evangelican church in Warsaw. Despite the efforts of the conductor, what emerges is pure cacophony. This project was reenacted two years later in Germany ( "Lekcja śpiewu 2" / "Singing Lesson 2" - illustrations, 2003), when a professional opera singer joined the choir. In the Leipzig Cathedral they all sang a cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach, a symbolic figure representing German high culture. Żmijewski was quoted as saying, "By singing they manifest their insuperable otherness."


One can easily discern in Żmijewski's filmworks that some deal with the traumatic stigma of the past, the extermination of Jews in World War II and the difficult Polish-Jewish relations. In "Berek" / "The Game of Tag", 1999 (illustrations) (1999), he filmed a group of naked men and women of different age playing tag.

"The Game of Tag", DVD, master Betacam, 3'50'',1999

Only at the end does it become clear that these people have been recorded at two different locations, one of them neutral, the other stigmatized with the tragic past as it is a gas chamber of what was once a Nazi concentration camp. Żmijewski compared this experience to a therapeutic situation. "Instead of a tragedy, we see here an innocent child's game. This is reminiscent of a clinical situation in psychotherapy." A kind of repetition is also present in "80064" (illustrations) (2004), another film by Żmijewski. The title is the number given to Józef Tarnawa in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Żmijewski manages to persuade Tarnawa to retouch his old number. At first skeptical, Tarnawa eventually succumbs to persuasion and agrees. In this work Żmijewski tried to highlight the role of conformism, both in the context of concentration camps, as well as now, in the process of retatooing the number. The artist has been quoted as saying, "this film repeats the very same act of conformism, consent, and subordination".

The same Holocaust issues resurface in the so-called Israeli Triptych (2003). All three films show how heavy the past weighs on those living in Israel today. "Itzik" (illustrations), in the film of the same title, weaves two planes of discourse. He uses, for example, historical facts and religious beliefs to explain why the Holocaust gave Jews the moral right to kill Arabs. "Lisa" (illustrations) is a story about a German girl living in Israel, who believes that her last incarnation was that of a Jewish boy killed by the Nazis. Her firm belief in it and contemporary situation combine to show the tragedy of inner turmoil and solitude of a German girl living in Jerusalem. "Nasz śpiewnik" / "Our Song-book" (illustrations) pertains to individual memory. Żmijewski asked older people, who left Poland many years ago, to try to recall songs they knew while living there. Some remember more while others can only summon up fragments. As they try to make their way out of the labyrinth of memory, a stigma of the past emerges.

Together with Paweł Althamer, Żmijewski filmed a polish catholic pilgrimage to the Holy Land ( "Pielgrzymka" / "Pilgrimage" (illustrations), 2003). The two artists recorded the whole trip disguised as tourist-pilgrims. The film isn't about religious feelings, however.

"What I was interested in was the paradox of the religious motivation to go and experience the spiritual return to the roots of one's faith when in fact the holiest places of the catholic faith are located in the Jewish land. This presents a fundamental conflict, inasmuch as those pilgrims have never accepted the existence of Israel."

Gradually the strategies developed in films like "Game of Tag", have taken on a greater importance. These strategies now focused around setting up a situation involving a group of people, with the artist only observing their reactions. Such activities are reminiscent of group experiments with unpredictable results. Out of existing footage, Żmijewski pastes together films that, on the one hand, document what had happened and, on the other, make up the artist's original statement.

"Repetition", DVD, master DV, 2005

In 2005 Żmijewski represented Poland at the 51st Art Biennale in Venice. He decided to re-enact, in the Polish context, a famous experiment conducted in 1971 by Professor Zimbardo (Stanford Prison Experiment). Zimbardo divided a group of men into prisoners and guards and locked them up in a prison-like building. Żmijewski recreated the starting point of the experiment: a virtual prison came to life and the guards and prisoners were recruited from largely unemployed men. As far as Zimbardo's experiment is concerned, its goal was to prove that people behave in a pattern that is easy to determine. It showed, as he said, that, "the casual, good people, when faced with great social pressure, can easily turn into culprits". Now, things were quite different in the case of Żmijewski's "Powtórzenie" / "Repetition" (illustrations). Here, the two groups, guards and prisoners, actually joined hands and rebelled against the institution of prison, the artist, and the very situation he had put them in. The contemporary context of Żmijewski's experiment was now the American prison, "Abu Ghraib" in Iraq and "Guantanamo" in Cuba. Żmijewski commented on the experiment:

" 'Repetition' suggests that what people most ardently strive for is a compromise. People don't keep torturing one another until the conflict is solved. They search, rather, for a safe status quo, negotiate, and act opportunistically."

Joanna Tokarska-Bakir suggested that, "one should perceive Żmijewski's work metaphorically. Not as a repetition, but rather as a new opening of the space of social evil". She noticed that, "in this metaphor one can easily see the world of a realized humanitarian utopia: nobody, not even the guard, trusts authority. Not even the head of the guards identifies with his role, if authority is meant by it. It's not authority that is in control here. The one that ends up ruling is the one who manages to arrest authority in the act of dominion."

Upon being offered by Center for Contemporary Art in Warsaw (CSW) to participate in a series of individual exhibitions entitled "W samym centrum uwagi" ("In the Very Center of Attention"), Żmijewski and Althamer decided not to show anything of their own, they rather invited friends from the Academy of Art, old friends from Prof. Kowalski's class, as well as other artists and non-artists. "Wybory.pl" / "[S]election.pl" (illustrations) self-consciously and creatively elaborated on one of Kowalski's most typical didactic projects. However, "Obszar Wspólny, Obszar Własny" ("Common Space, Individual Space") was subject to many modifications. In contrast to the classroom environment which, according to the artist, was an "exterritorial place, in which a community organized itself around free expression of thought", the process that manifested in "[S]election.pl" was open to any incursions from external reality and to any prevalent "calamities" (kindergarten kids, high school kids, call-girls, etc.). As a result a major principle of not acting destructively, a principle adherent to Kowalski's concept of the project was suspended. According to Żmijewski, "It turned out that the appearance of such extreme acts of destruction doesn't really destroy or end the action itself - it simply becomes part of it."

These experiences resulted in other films, especially "Oni" / "Them", shown in 2007 at Documenta in Kassel. Żmijewski arranged a sort of workshop, to which he invited members of the Polish right wing radical youth organization (Młodzież Wszechpolska), women identifying with the Catholic Church, young Polish Jews, and members of leftist organizations. Departing from the signs and symbols created by the groups, he indicated the possibility of visual (and verbal) conversation about the fundamental social problems. Although the film ended with destruction, it would be hard to understand that this inability to communicate was the core conclusion of the project.

Similar, though less conflicting, methods of work were applied again in the film "Polak w szafie" / "A Pole in a Wardrobe" (2006). A group of young anthropologists in an art workshop is trying to work through a trauma related to their fieldwork that focused on the history of the so-called "Sandomierz paintings" and anti-Semitism. People taking part in the workshop try to contend with an ignominious picture of a ritual murder. According to Prof. Joanna Tokarska-Bakir, the film "showed us trying to come to grips with what we had experienced during our field-work in Sandomierz. We became aware of our helplessness. We realized that, depending on upbringing, we might have no way to persuade people of the truth. (...) This is a provocation, aimed at starting a conversation that was deadlocked and wouldn't move, no mater what."


More recently Żmijewski associated himself with the leftist magazine "Krytyka Polityczna". As the art director of "Krytyka Polityczna", Żmijewski has been able to further emphasize his artistic position. His article "Stosowane Sztuki Społeczne" ("Applied Social Arts") published in "KP" (2007, 11-12) was widely discussed, as it was asking a crucial question: "Does contemporary art have any substantial impact on society?" Żmijewski analyzes a particular situation, in which "art is political, but 'without politics' - a situation in which art fulfills its political potential in the galleries, but not on the plane of real political confrontation which takes place elsewhere, e.g. in the media." He compares the discourse of arts with that of science saying, "The diagnoses offered by artists are considered too equivocal and unverifiable, when confronted with scientific categories". Żmijewski then goes on to propose, "the knowledge which arrives as the final product of art is by various specialists repeatedly and obstinately reduced to just another esthetical proposition." Unfortunately art criticism plays a similar role (as was conclusively proved by the reception of the film "Repetition").

"80064", DVD, master DV, 9'20'', 2004

The manifesto eventually does suggest a possible solution to the problem that would, at the same time, help to endow art with the lost social efficacy. First, he proposes the "instrumentalizing of art's own autonomy", with the effect that art's autonomy contributes to the artist's goals without constraining it. Secondly, artists should dare enter "the areas ascribed to other domains", "and co-operate with people who don't feel any respect for art." Thirdly, Żmijewski suggests one should break with the notion that art is like fashion where everything changes over time, breaking also with the dictates of art criticism. Answering the skeptics' question of whether art is to engage in political discussion, he says, "Of course it should engage in political discussion. This discussion will only be valuable if art can talk about its objects usurping various strategies, if art feels at ease with its intuition, imagination and premonitions."

"Applied Social Arts", though only few artists declared their full adherence to the postulates and diagnoses represented by Żmijewski, has become a reference point for many artists, critics, and theorists. Żmijewski's essay has definitely given rise to discussions about the place and role of art. Another convergent factor here has been a recent translation of works by Jacques Rancière. In the introduction to Rancière's book "Estetyka jako polityka" / "The Politics of Aesthetics" (published by "KP") Żmijewski wrote:

"The meaning is nothing but a social fact, it takes place between people that communicate and act. The politics of art germinates from this mode of thinking. (...) Seen from this perspective, politics is not the use of state apparatus to instill in people a certain set of ideas. It is, rather, a place where our demands, needs and wishes meet. Ergo, politics means art."

Various discussions that ensued included polemics by anthropologists from the Institute of Applied Social Sciences. In an article entitled "Pseudo", while admitting that Żmijewski's analysis of the art field is quite sober, they reproached him for "idealizing science, demanding from it something about which science, itself, is very suspicious."

To Żmijewski's credit, however, is the crystallization of artistic attitudes, asking the question considering artistic (over-)production, finally pointing to the drawbacks of the system in which the artists function. Seen from this angle, art is a negotiated area of free activity, though not exempted from the domain of social norms. It's the artist who eventually takes responsibility for his work. Personal abilities and ingenuity are swept aside, as the discourse, engaging in it and producing it, grow in importance. Staying away from the center, self-conscious indifferentism is, ultimately, a kind of escapism. Żmijewski's article questions not only the necessity, but also the very possibility of using the word "art", as it significantly continues to lose its value.

It may seem that by taking away from art its exclusiveness, Żmijewski succeeds at weakening art. On the other hand, his activity does strengthen art, as it ascribes to it a substantial social role. Many think that crossing the border of art's autonomy and using it instrumentally is unequivocally synonymous with retreating from its territory. They effectively ask if it's still Art? Żmijewski doesn't seem to be in any way intimidated by such critique, as the art is not at stake here anymore.


One can discern, as well, a certain change in Żmijewski's films made after the manifesto. In a series of films called "Wybrane prace" / "Selected Works" (2007), he created portraits of the so-called common people, working at the factories or doing simple chores. Żmijewski accompanied them at work and at home, at their most simple activities or leisure. He would even film them asleep. In "Demokracje" / "Democracies" (2009) he confronted various expressions of political attitudes in public space, most often demonstrations, such as those in Israel and the West Bank, in Poland and other European countries. He shows an anti-abortionist demo in Warsaw, alongside the funeral of Jörg Haider, alter-globalist riots, a march in Ireland, holy mass in a catholic church and a Way of the Cross in the town streets. "Many similar videos end up on Youtube, because the official media won't show them" - Żmijewski said in an interview.

In Ireland he realized a project entitled "Robotnice i robotnicy" / "Male and Female Workers" (2008-09). He asked construction workers and cleaning ladies - in large, migrants from Poland - to tell him about their work and what hopes they have about their stay abroad. The answers are short texts or little drawings. They constituted part of a special edition of "KP" (2009, 18), edited by Żmijewski and fully dedicated to visual art, photography, artistic projects, etc. They all share an attitude of politics and social activism. Thus, a magazine has become an alternative to exhibition way of making a statement; the statement being made in a "serious" environment. The authors of this issue of "KP" included the names of Santiago Sierra, Adrian Paci, Ahlam Shibli, Maurycy Gomulicki, Paweł Althamer, Anna Molska and many others.

Author: Karol Sienkiewicz, September 2009.

Photos courtesy of the Foksal Gallery Foundation, Warsaw.

"40 szuflad" / "40 Drawers", wood, metal, black-and_white photographs, 1995 back to text

"Ja i AIDS" / "Me and AIDS", DVD, master S-VHS, 3'30'', 1996 back to text

"Ogród botaniczny / ZOO" ("Botanical Garden / ZOO"), DVD, Master S-VHS, 4'20'', 1997 back to text

"Oko za oko" / "Eye for an Eye", DVD, master Betacam, 10', 1998 back to text

"KR WP", DVD, master Betacam, 7'30'', 2000 back to text

"Na spacer" / "Out for a Walk", DVD, master Betacam, 9', 2001 back to text

"Lekcja śpiewu" / "Singing Lesson", DVD, master Betacam, 14', 2001 back to text

"Lekcja śpiewu II" / "Singing Lesson II", DVD, master Betacam, 16'30'', 2003 back to text

"Berek" / "The Game of Tag", DVD, master Betacam, 3'50'',1999 back to text

"Sztuka kochania" / "The Art of Love", DVD, master Betacam, 4', 2000 back to text

"Karolina", DVD, master DV, 8'8'', 2001 back to text

"Pielgrzymka" / "Pilgrimage", DVD, master DV, 29'30'', 2003 back to text

"Nasz śpiewnik" / "Our Song-book", DVD, master S-VHS, 11', 2003 back to text

"Itzik", DVD, master S-VHS, 5'05'', 2003 back to text

"Lisa", DVD, master S-VHS, 11', 2003 back to text

"80064", DVD, master DV, 9'20'', 2004 back to text

"Rendez-vous", DVD, master DV, 8', 2004 back to text

"Powtórzenie" / "Repetition", DVD, master DV, 2005 back to text

"Wybory.pl" / "[S]election.pl" (with Paweł Althamer), 2005 back to text

Selected individual exhibitions:

• 1995 "Tożsamość dzidzi" / "The Babe's Identity", A.R. Friends Gallery, Warsaw
• 1996 "Śpiew sardynek" / "Sardines' Song", a.r.t. Gallery, Płock
• 1998 "Oko za oko" / "An Eye for an Eye", Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw
• 1999 "Ausgewählte Arbeiten", Wyspa Gallery, Gdańsk
• 2000 "Berek" / "The Game of Tag", a.r.t. Gallery, Płock
• 2001 "Na spacer" / "Out for a Walk", Foksal Gallery, Warsaw
• 2003
  - "Lekcja śpiewu 1" / "Lekcja śpiewu 2" ("Singing Lesson 1" / "Singing Lesson 2"), Foksal Gallery Foundation, Warsaw
  - "Singing Lesson 2", Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig, Germany
  - "Singing Lesson", Wilkinson Gallery, London, UK
• 2004
  - "Artur Żmijewski. Selected Works 1998-2003", MIT List Visual Arts Center, Boston, USA
  - "Artur Żmijewski", Centre d'Art Contemporain de Brétigny, Brétigny-sur-Orge, France
• 2005
  - "Powtórzenie" / "Repetition", the Polish Pavillion at the 51st International Venice Biennale, Italy
  - "Artur Żmijewski", Kunsthalle, Basel, Switzerland
• 2006
  - "Game of Tag", Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia; Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zürich
  - "Repetition", Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art, California College of Arts, California, USA
• 2007 "Ausgewählte Arbeiten", Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin
• 2008
  - "The Social Studio", BAK, Utrecht
  - "Artur Żmijewski", Gallery TPW, Toronto, Canada
• 2009
  - "Demokracje", Foksal Gallery Foundation, Warsaw
  - "Democracies", Kunsthaus Graz, Austria; DAAD Galerie, Berlin
  - "Artur Żmijewski", Museum of Modern Art, New York

Selected group exhibitions:

• 1991 "Kardynał, Wieczerza" / "Cardinal, Supper", Dziekanka Gallery, Warsaw
• 1994 "Na pięknej łące puszczam w kosmos seryjne, białe stolce" / "On a Beautiful Meadow I am Getting Rid Of A Series of White Stools in Outer Space", Czereja Gallery (Stolica cinema), Warsaw
• 1995 "Transhumacja" / "Transhumation", Picture Gallery, Kaunas, Lithuania
• 1996
  - "A.R. Galeria przyjaciół" / "A.R. Friends Gallery", Xawery Dunikowski Museum, Warsaw
  - "Ja i AIDS" / "Me and AIDS", Czereja Gallery (Stolica cinema), Warsaw; a.r.t. Gallery, Płock
  - "Artists' Society Water-Tower", Bydgoszcz; Wyspa Gallery, Gdańsk
  - "Generation'96", BWA Gallery, Katowice
• 1997
  - "Bez paszportu" / "Passport: Exchange (Ex)change", Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, Dublin, Ireland; Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw (1998)
  - "Parteitag" / "Parteitag", Inżynierska 3, Warsaw; a.r.t. Gallery, Płock (1998); BWA Gallery, Katowice (1999)
• 1998
  - "Figura w rzeźbie polskiej XIX i XX wieku" / "The Figure in Polish 19th and 20th Century Sulpture", Centre of Polish Sculpture, Orońsko; Zachęta National Gallery of Art (1999)
  - "Germinations 10", The Factory, Athens, Greece
  - "OIKOS IV", Leon Wyczółkowski District Museum, Bydgoszcz
  - "Fauna", New Manege, Moscow, Russia; Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw
  - "W tym szczególnym momencie" / "At the Time of Writing", Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw
• 1999
  - "Can You Hear Me?", 2nd Ars Baltica Triennale of Photographic Art, Stadtgalerie, Kiel, Germany
  - "After the Wall. Art and Culture in Post-Communist Europe", Moderna Museet, Sztokholm, Sweden; Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin
  - "Rondo" (A Selection of Works by Central and Eastern European Artists), Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Hungary
  - "Generacje. Sztuka polska końca/poczatku wieku" / "Generations. Polish Art at The End/Beginning of the Century", Manege Central Exhibition Hall, Sankt Petersburg
• 2000
  - "Sexxx", Inżynierska 3, Warsaw; a.r.t. Gallery, Płock (2001)
  - "Polen - Postindustrial Sorrow", Nassauischer Kunstverein, Wiesbaden, Germany
  - "Scena 2000" / "Scene 2000", Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw
  - "Guarene Arte 2000", Palazzo Re Rebaudengo, Guarene d'Alba, Italy
  - ""In Freiheit/Endlich" / "Na wolności/W końcu", Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Germany; Xawery Dunikowski Museum, Warsaw; National Museum in Szczecin (2001)
• 2001
  - "Międzynarodowa kolekcja sztuki współczesnej" / "International Collection of Contemporary Art", Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw
  - "Co widzi trupa wyszklona źrenica" / "What Does the Corpse's Glazed Pupil See", Academia Theatre, Warsaw
  - "Milano Europa 2000. Triennale di Milano", Palazzo della Triennale, Milano, Italy
  - "In-Beween. Art from Poland 1945-2000", Chicago Cultural Centre, Chicago, USA
• 2002
  - "Manifesta 4", Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt am Main
  - "Niebezpieczne związki" / "Dangerous Liaisons", Arsenal Gallery, Poznań
  - "Co widzi trupa wyszkolna źrenica" / "What Does the Corpse's Glazed Pupil See", Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw; Leon Wyczółkowski District Museum, Bydgoszcz (2003)
  - "Polska", Teatr Academia, Warsaw
• 2003
  - "Topos Polonicus", Stockholm Art Fair, Sollentunamässan, Stockholm
  - "Art Focus 4" - International Biennale of Contemporary Art, Jerusalem, Israel
  - "Die Aufgabe der Zeit", Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster, Germany; Phalanstère, Centre d'Art Contemporain de Brétigny, Brétigny-sur-Orge, France
  - "Sound System", Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg, Austria
  - "New Polish Video Art", Atelier Nord, Oslo, Norway
  - "Interior Secrets of the Body", Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Hungary
  - "Gleiche Rechte - Droits Egaux", Kornhausforum, Bern, Switzerland
  - "Des/Fragmentar", Museo Universitario de Ciencices y Arte Roma, Mexico City, Mexico
  - "Public Rituals", Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Wien, Austria
• 2004
  - "Warszawa-Moskwa/Moskwa-Warszawa 1900-2000" / "Warsaw-Moscow/Moscow-Warsaw 1900-2000", Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw; Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow (2005)
  - "Rendez-Vous Nova Polska - Espace Croisé", Centre d'Art Contemporain, Roubaix, France
  - "E.U. Positive - Kunst aus dem Neuen Europa", Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Germany
  - "Powinność i Bunt" / "Duty and Rebellion", Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw
  - "Mémoires du Temps de l'Immaturité", Passage de Retz, Paris, France
  - "Privatisierungen", KW Kunst-Werke Berlin e.V. Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
  - "Pod flagą biało-czerwoną. Nowa sztuka z Polski" / "Under The White-Red Flag. New Art From Poland", Estonian Art Museum, Rotermann Salt Storage, Tallinn, Estonia; Contemporary Art Centre, Vilinius, Lithuania; National Centre for Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia
  - "Rzeźbiarze fotografują" / "Photography by Sculptors", Xawery Dunikowski Museum, Warsaw
• 2005
  - "Kollektive Kreativität", Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany
  - "Akademie. Kunst Lehren und Lernen", Kunstverein, Hamburg, Germany
  - "Irreducible", Centre for Contemporary Art, Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, USA
  - "Potencjał" / "Potential", Metropolitan Building, Warsaw
• 2006
  - "Teatr Niemożliwy" / "The Impossible Theatre", Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw; Barbican Art Gallery, London
  - "Wybory.pl" / "[S]Election.Pl", Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw
  - "Policja", Bunkier Sztuki, Krakow
  - "Höhepunkte der Kunst", FilmBiennale Köln in Berlin, Kunst-Werke, Berlin
  - "Grenzengänger", Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie, Regensburg, Germany
  - "You Won't Feel a Thing", Kunsthaus Dresden, Germany
  - "Jeux Interdits", Institut Polonais, Paris
  - "A Short History of Performance - Part IV", Whitechapel Art Gallery, London
  - "Positioning - In the New Reality of Europe", Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokio
  
• 2007
  - Documenta, Kassel, Germany
  - "1, 2, 3... awangarda", Center for Contemporary Art Zamek Ujazdowski, Warsaw; Sala Rekalde, Bilbao, Spain
• 2008
  - "Das Gelände", Kunsthalle Nürnberg, Germany
  - "Video Zone 4", The Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
  - "Die Lucky Bush", MUHKA, Antwerp, Belgium
  - "Vertraues Terrain", ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany
  - "Double Agent", ICA, London; Warwick Arts Centre, Mead Gallery, Warwick, Great Britain; BALTIC The Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, Great Britaon
  - "Mimétisme", Extra City, Center for Contemporary Art, Antwerp, Belgium
• 2009
  - 11th International Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey
  - "As Long As It Lasts", Marian Goodman Gallery, New York
  - "Oppositions & Dialogues", Kunstverein Hannover, Germany
  - "Inwazja dźwięku" / "Sound Invasions", Zachęta National Art Gallery, Warsaw

Browsing history