A radical artist, realising extreme artistic concepts; born May 26th, 1966 in Warsaw.

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

Born May 26th, 1966 in Warsaw. In 1990-1995 he studied in Grzegorz Kowalski's studio at the Department of Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Associated with the Foksal Gallery Foundation. Lives and works in Warsaw.

Artur Zmijewski is a radical artist, realising extreme artistic concepts. In his works, in a nearly obsessive manner he thematises the human body perceived in the context of its physicality, its base biological functions. This perspective imposes questions about the relationship between the body, susceptible to illness and decay, and the sphere of human mind and spirit. What the artist finds most interesting, are cases, where heavy bodily dysfunction and severe disease foreclose any possibility of participation in social life and even destroy the mind. At the same time, he admits, those defects create a kind of otherness, seductive and much more telling than anything we consider normal. And this is Zmijewski at his most poignant.

The early works of Artur Zmijewski, realised during his studies, are constructions - machines or humanoid mechanisms, whose actions mimic one somatic or mental human aspect, such as fear, the stench of decaying flesh, the circulation of bodily fluids etc. His graduation project, "40 SZUFLAD" / "40 Drawers" (illustrations), is a photographic object, consisting of forty black-and-white photographs of a nude couple, who knead and deform each other's body. The artist placed the images in an arc-shaped library catalogue cabinet. The drawers have been equipped with a spring mechanism, so one has to overcome a certain resistance to open them. Zmijewski's interest was in the forms, a body subjected to oppression can take on. The video "POWSCIAGLIWOSC I PRACA" / "Temperance and Work", (1995) was a continuation of that approach. In 1996 he presented the film "JA I AIDS" / "Me and AIDS" (illustrations) showing nude men and women, crashing into each other violently, in slow motion.

For the exhibition PARTEITAG (1997), devoted to the phenomenon of evil, Zmijewski realised the video "OGROD BOTANICZNY/ZOO" / "The Botanic Garden/Zoo" (illustrations). He filmed a group of mentally impaired children in the botanical garden in Birmingham, and juxtaposed those images with footage of animals from the zoo nearby. This film was a specific kind of experiment whose aim was to test predispositions to release base and evil tendencies inherent in human nature, and, what follows, the instinct to do evil.

The disabled body and corporal defect are subject of interest for the artist as figures of mental or spiritual disability. The juxtaposition of a defective body and a healthy one allows for a metaphoric account of human relationships. In 1998 the artist realised "OKO ZA OKO" / "Eye for an Eye" (illustrations), a project consisting of a series of large-format colour photographs and a video. They depict posing nude people with amputated limbs together with physically fit ones, who "lend" them the missing members. The naked bodies of the pictures' protagonists have been arranged by the artist into amusing compositions, forming corporal hybrids - people with two heads, two pairs of arms, etc., and, at the same time, new healthy organisms, where the healthy offer relief to the disabled.

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

Questions about socially approved "norms" of humanity and about our relation to people functioning or looking different recur in Artur Zmijewski's work. Infirmity, disability or illness are embarrassing problems that do not fit into the image of young, beautiful, and healthy people, as promoted by mass culture.

In 2000 the film "KR WP" (illustrations) was released, featuring soldiers from the Polish Army's Honour Guard Unit. In the film, at first they practise military drill in full uniform, and then do the same nude in a ballet room, equipped with rifles, boots and caps only. This work also touches upon issues of the body, this time entangled in the forms imposed by military training, appropriated by military ritual.

The film "NA SPACER" / "Out for a Walk" (illustrations) was realised in 2001 with the help of paralysed people, in a rehabilitation clinic. Those absolutely torpid people with all their limbs paralysed, were taken out for a short walk by healthy, strong men, operators, who animated their bodies, imitating normal movements.

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

In the same year the first part of the project "Lekcja spiewu" / "The Singing Lesson" (illustrations), was realised with the participation of deaf-mute youths, was finished. The film was recorded at the Holy Trinity Evangelical Church of the Augsburg confession in Warsaw, where the a choir of deaf-mutes "sang" the "KYRIE" by Jan Maklakiewicz. The work was presented among others at the Manifesta 4 in Frankfurt am Main. The second part of the project was realised in 2002 in the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, where deaf-mute and heavily hearing-impaired youths sang Bach's cantata "HERZ UND MUND UND TAT UND LEBEN" ("Heart and Mouth and Deed and Life"). The "deaf choirs" were accompanied by organ music. "The singing Lesson" is another work with disabled people, in which the artists transgresses a seemingly impassable boundary, he takes up the challenge and tries to change an irreversible situation. The miracle does not happen, one cannot transcend disability, but the transformation can occur in the reception of the work, providing the viewer accepts the otherness of the world of the disabled and acknowledges their right to self-expression. "Art is a hard fight for human consciousness", claims Zmijewski.

Ewa Gorzadek Centre for Contemporary Art at Ujazdowski Castle February 2004

Author of photographic objects, photographic and video works; independent curator of group exhibitions (among others JA I AIDS / Me and AIDS, 1996, exhibition series PARTEITAG, 1997, 1998, 1999, SEXXX, 2000, POLSKA / "Poland", 2002), editor of the artzine "CZEREJA", appearing on an irregular basis in 1992-1998 (six issues), author of theoretic and critical texts. In 2000 he was awarded the first prize at the exhibition "Guarene Arte 2000" in Guarene d'Alba, Italy and represented Poland at the 51st Venice Biennial in 2006.

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

As early as during his studies, Artur Zmijewski developed a theoretical stance concerning art and its relation to reality, whose point of departure was the question about the place and role of the artist in society. In his graduation paper, "Moja teoria sztuki" / "My Theory of Art" (1995), the artist formulated his theses most extensively. In his opinion, art should influence social consciousness and stimulate reflection, hence his demand for a corresponding strength of impact and provocativeness of art. As a consequence, in his "favourite theory" art is intimately bound to the time of its conception, and, at some point, it has to become obsolete. At the same time, what Zmijewski demands of art criticism is to resign on evaluation in favour of an "adequate answer", that is, a discursive elaboration of the ideas imminent in the work.

The strategy most frequently used by Zmijewski is to arrange situations and look, how the protagonists would behave. That is why his video works often remind fictionalised documentaries. "BEREK" / "The Game of Tag", 1999 (illustrations) is one of the best examples. Zmijewski filmed a group of people in two rooms: a symbolically neutral space and the gas chamber of a former Nazi death camp. Naked men and women of various ages play the game of tag - some of them are ashamed, others engage in the game. According to the artist, this film is an example of a kind of therapy, used in psychology: the re-enactment of a traumatic event with a simultaneous shifting of its meaning.

In the film "SZTUKA KOCHANIA" / "The Art of Loving", 2000 (illustrations), Zmijewski recorded people suffering from Parkinson's disease, who, as a result, cannot fully control their bodies. Nevertheless, the unwanted impulses, tics and uncontrolled tremors are used to show their feelings to their loved ones.

In "Karolina" (illustrations), a film from 2002, we see a bedridden young woman suffering from osteoporosis. Her broken bones cause incredible pain with every move. Watching her suffering is a hard task, but

"The world is a dangerous place - says Zmijewski - and 'KAROLINA' is also about that."

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

The woman tries to commit suicide by overdosing analgesics. Her demand for the right to die in this extreme situation is an expression of her courage in deciding upon her own life. Through his film, the artist makes her voice heard.

As a result of a trip to Israel in 2003 there emerged a series of films, in which Zmijewski makes use of the documentary mode of film making and also of interviews, touching upon delicate issues of memory, the complicated situation of the country's inhabitants, and the not always easy Polish-Jewish relations. In "PIELGRZYMKA" / "PILGRIMAGE" (illustrations), realised together Pawel Althamer, the artists take part in an organised journey to the Holy Land. Mingled with the Polish group, they accompany the pilgrims on their way to places of cult connected with the person of Christ, and to places of Jewish martyrology (Yad Vashem). Religious experiences mix with expressions of an ambivalent relation to the Jewish nation, verging on xenophobia and anti-Semitism. In "NASZ SPIEWNIK" / "OUR SONGBOOK" (illustrations) Zmijewski evokes in the memory of Polish Jews, who left for Israel tens of years ago, songs from their childhood and adolescence. The memories, rarely brought to mind, seem to be merely scraps of once popular songs. The monologue of the protagonist of he film "Itzik" (illustrations), full of religious references, is a manifestation of his hatred towards the Palestinians. According to him, the Holocaust gave the Israelis the licence to revenge upon others. By contrast, the title protagonist of "Lisa" (illustrations) is a German woman living in Israel who claims that in her former life she was a Jewish boy shot by a Nazi in the back of his head (she claims to feel pain there). As a result of God's revelation she learned that she had to move to Israel. In the new country, however, she feels lonely and alien.

The issue of the Holocaust memory reappears in the film "80064" (illustrations) from 2004. Its title is the camp number of a former Auschwitz prisoner, Jozef Tarnawa. Zmijewski persuades him to have it re-tattooed. The artist wanted the film to be an attempt at "opening the door of memory", a sudden "eruption of recollections" through the reminding of a past humiliation. The man hesitates, but finally, gives in to Zmijewski's strenuous persuasions. The scene in the tattoo shop depicts (and re-enacts) the conformist mechanism of the total acceptance of fate and of subjecting to inhuman rules, which gave the camp prisoners a slight chance to survive.

In 2004, Artur Zmijewski made two works featuring Wojciech Krolikiewicz - an actor suffering from Huntington's chorea. The disease deprives the man of control over his body, causes difficulties with speech, and makes the most trivial everyday activities serious obstacles. Zmijewski portrayed him in the film entitled "Rendez-vous" (illustrations). Krolikiewicz prepares to go out, and then meets in a pizzeria with Danuta Witkowska, also suffering from Huntington's. Their behaviour attracts other people's gaze. On the occasion of the exhibition at Centre d'art Contemporain in Brétigny, Zmijewski recorded a CD with Shakespeare Sonnets read by Krolikiewicz ("WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, SONNETS").

"REPETITION" DVD, master DV, 2005

Artur Zmijewski's project "Powtorzenie" / "REPETITION" (illustrations) was chosen to represent Poland at the 51st Venice Biennial in 2005. The artist decided to re-conduct the experiment of Philip Zimbardo from 1971, known as the Stanford Prison Experiment. Zimbardo, a specialist in the "psychology of evil", analysed the behaviour of ordinary people, placed in the roles of prisoners and wards in a set up prison. The experiment was to prove that human behaviour is predictable and depends on the circumstances people find themselves in. Over thirty years later, Zmijewski quite exactly recreated Zimbardo's experiment in Poland. The experiment, however, took an extremely different turn - the participants (both prisoners and wards) together decided to leave the prison, revolting against the author of the project. Zmijewski's film aroused much controversy in his home country.

In autumn 2005, Artur Zmijewski was invited to participate in an opening exhibition of a series of shows at the Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, entitled W SAMYM CENTRUM UWAGI / AT THE VERY CENTRE OF ATTENTION. The aim of this project was to assess the actual situation of art in Poland. Together with Pawel Althamer, Zmijewski resigned from an individual project in favour of the curatorial project WYBORY.PL / [S]ELECTION.PL (illustrations). In the gallery space they decided to reconstruct a creative exercise from Grzegorz Kowalski's studio - OBSZAR WSPOLNY I OBSZAR WLASNY / COMMON SPHERE AND PRIVATE SPHERE - at the same time, revising some of its assumptions. Hence they invited their former colleagues from Kowalski's studio. The CSA's exhibition spaces became the locus of unrestrained artistic activity and creative dialogue. Zmijewski and Althamer performed an anarchic deconstruction of the institutionalised exhibition space by replacing exhibition with process.

Karol Sienkiewicz October 2006

"40 Szuflad" wood, metal, black-and_white photographs, 1995 back to text

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

"Ogrod botaniczny Zoo", DVD, Master S-VHS, 4'20'', 1997 back to text

"Oko za oko", DVD, master Betacam, 10', 1998 back to text

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

"Na spacer", DVD, master Betacam, 9', 2001 back to text

"Lekcja Spiewu I" DVD, master Betacam, 14', 2001 back to text

"Lekcja Spiewu II" format DVD, master Betacam, 16'30'', 2003 back to text

"Berek" DVD, master Betacam, 3'50'',1999 back to text

"Sztuka kochania", DVD, master Betacam, 4', 2000 back to text

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

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

"Nasz Spiewnik", 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

"Powtorzenie", DVD, master DV, 2005 back to text

"WYBORY.PL" width Pawel Althamer, 2005 back to text

Selected individual exhibitions:

1995 TOZASAMOSC DZIDZI / THE BABE'S IDENTITY, A.R. Friends Gallery, Warsaw;
1996 SPIEW SARDYNEK / SARDINES' SONG), a.r.t. Gallery, Plock;
1998 OKO ZA OKO / AN EYE FOR AN EYE, Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw
1999 AUSGEWÄHLTE ARBEITEN, Wyspa Gallery, Gdansk;
2000 BEREK / THE GAME OF TAG, a.r.t. Gallery, Plock;
2001 NA SPACER / OUT FOR A WALK, Foksal Gallery, Warsaw;
2003 LEKCJA SPIEWU 1 / LEKCJA SPIEWU 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 ZMIJEWSKI. SELECTED WORKS 1998-2003, MIT List Visual Arts Center, Boston, USA; ARTUR ZMIJEWSKI, Centre d'art Contemporain de Brétigny, Brétigny-sur-Orge, France;
2005 POWTORZENIE, Polski Pawilon na LI Miedzynarodowym Biennale w Wenecji / REPETITION, the Polish Pavillion at the LI International Venice Biennale, Italy; ARTUR ZMIJEWSKI, Kunsthalle, Basel, Switzerland.

Selected group exhibitions:

1991 KARDYNAL, WIECZERZA / CARDINAL, SUPPER - Dziekanka Gallery, Warsaw;
1994 NA PIEKNEJ LACE PUSZCZAM W KOSMOS SERYJNE, BIALE STOLCE / ON A BEAUTIFUL MEADOW I AM GETTING RID OF SERIES OF WHITE STOOLS IN OUTER SPACE - Czereja Gallery (Stolica cinema), Warsaw;
1995 TRANSHUMACJA / TRANHUMATION - Picture Gallery, Kaunas, Lithuania;
1996 A.R. - GALERIA PRZYJACIOL / A.R. FRIENDS GALLERY, Xawery Dunikowski Museum, Warsaw; JA I AIDS / ME AND AIDS - Czereja Gallery (Stolica cinema), Warsaw; a.r.t. Gallery, Plock; Artists' Society Water-Tower, Bydgoszcz; Wyspa Gallery, Gdansk; GENERATION'96, BWA Gallery, Katowice;
1997 BEZ PASZPORTU / PASSPORT: EXCHANGE (EX)CHANGE - Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, Dublin, Ireland; Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw (1998); PARTEITAG (Dzien Pracy - wystawa sztuki) / PARTEITAG (Art Exhibition - 1st Edition) - Inzynierska 3, Warsaw; a.r.t. Gallery, Plock (1998); BWA Gallery, Katowice (1999);
1998 FIGURA W RZEZBIE POLSKIEJ XIX I XX WIEKU / THE FIGURE IN POLISH 19TH AND 20TH CENTURY SULPTURE - Centre of Polish Sculpture, Oronsko; Zacheta National Gallery of Art (1999); GERMINATIONS 10 - The Factory, Athens, Greece; OIKOS IV - Leon Wyczolkowski District Muzeum, Bydgoszcz; FAUNA - New Manege, Moscow, Russia; Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw; W TYM SZCZEGOLNYM 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 KONCA/POCZATKU WIEKU / GENERATIONS. POLISH ART AT THE END/BEGINNING OF THE CENTURY - Manege Central Exhibition Hall, Sankt Petersburg;
2000 SEXXX - Inzynierska 3, Warsaw; a.r.t. Gallery, Plock (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 - Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Germany; Xawery Dunikowski Museum, Warsaw; National Museum in Szczecin (2001);
2001 MIEDZYNARODOWA KOLEKCJA SZTUKI WSPOLCZESNEJ / INTERNATIONAL COLLECTION OF CONTEMPORARY ART - Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw; CO WIDZI TRUPA WYSZKLONA ZRENICA / 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 ZWIAZKI / DANGEROUS LIAISONS - Arsenal Gallery, Poznan; CO WIDZI TRUPA WYSZKOLNA ZRENICA / WHAT DOES THE CORPSE'S GLAZED PUPIL SEE - Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw; Muzeum Okregowe im. Leona Wyczolkowskiego, 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 - Zacheta 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; POWINNOSC I BUNT / DUTY AND REBELLION - Zacheta 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 FLAGA BIALO-CZERWONA. 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; RZEZBIARZE FOTOGRAFUJA / 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; POTENCJAL / POTENTIAL - Metropolitan building, Warsaw;
2006 TEATR NIEMOZLIWY / THE IMPOSSIBLE THEATRE - Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw; WYBORY.PL / [S]ELECTION.PL - Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw.

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