Artur Żmijewski – 1966, Warsaw, Poland / Paweł Althamer, 1967, Warsaw, Poland
Untitled (from the series Polish School of Collage), 2022
Collage and acrylic on cardboard, 100 x 70 cm
Acquisition: Gift by the artists
Reference: 05260
In their personal artistic careers, Artur Żmijewski and Paweł Althamer, are among the most renowned Polish artists. During a joint residency in Japan in 2017, they began to work occasionally on joint projects of a similar nature, which involved making spontaneously generated collages using various illustrated art, medical, historical, and other magazines or books. The collaborative project “Polish School of Collage”, was realized as a residency from July 1 to 15, 2022, and took place in one of the gallery spaces of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Skopje, according to the already established hourly schedule, as in the rest of their projects, i.e. every day from 2 pm until around midnight and most of the time with the presence of museum visitors. During those two weeks of working together, the artists created multiple collages on cardboard using acrylic paints and photo-cuts. Visitors were invited to bring some of these materials, thereby contributing to the creation of the works. The result of this process is a series of 30 collages with clippings from history books, art magazines, geographic atlases, maps, posters, photographs, educational charts, medical illustrations etc. These thickly layered images can be seen as references to the theme of the medieval “dance macabre” and to events or some general significance absorbed from the local (historical) context. The works were finally exhibited at the same gallery of the Museum of Contemporary Art Skopje from 14. July to 25. August 2022: msu.mk/exhibition/artur-zmijewski
Biographies
Artur Żmijewski (1966) is a visual artist based in Warsaw, with a rich artistic career, who is focused on creating installations, composed of photography, film and video. In his works, he exposes the world of “others”, who often go unnoticed, insisting on the conscious participation of art in social life. He records their everyday life, showing how physical and mental limitations condemn these people to be marginalized in society. Through experiments with the participation of selected groups, he tries to understand difficult experiences and taboo topics. He has exhibited at some of the most important art events, such as the Venice Biennale and Documenta in Kassel, and he was the curator of the Berlin Biennale in 2012. His works are included in the collections of some of the most renowned art institutions in the world, such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Tate Modern in London, and the Neue Pinakothek in Munich.
Paweł Althamer (1967) is a visual artist based in Warsaw. He works in different media such as sculpture, performance, installation, video, and apart from the media, his works are also diverse in terms of form. He creates sculptural self-portraits, appears in performance and video, seeking to experience the materiality of the body and define his own mental boundaries. Through actions involving entire communities, he wants to create social communities, confronting people through art. He questions the meaning of monumental monuments according to the scale of his works and the randomness of his materials. In his works he also references Beuys’ social sculpture and the legacy of Oskar Hansen’s ‘Open Form. He can also be described as an artist with an affinity for ‘relational aesthetics’. He participated in the most important art exhibitions, including Documenta 10 (1997), the Venice Biennale (2003, 2013), the Berlin Biennale (2012), Skulptur Projekte Münster (2017). He has also won numerous awards, such as the biennial Vincent van Gogh Prize for Contemporary Art in Europe in 2004.
1981, Zwolle, Netherland
New Unions, 2016/2019
Installation, variable dimensions
Acquisition: Gift by the artist
Reference: 05916
Biography
Jonas Staal (Netherlands, 1981) is a visual artist whose work deals with the relation between art, propaganda, and democracy. He is the founder of the artistic and political organization New World Summit (2012–ongoing). Together with Florian Malzacher he co-directs the training camp Training for the Future (2018-ongoing), and with the human rights lawyer Jan Fermon he has initiated the collective action lawsuit Collectivize Facebook (2020-ongoing). With writer and lawyer Radha D’Souza he founded the Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes (2021-ongoing) and with Laure Prouvost he is co-administrator of the Obscure Union. Exhibition-projects include Art of the Stateless State (Moderna Galerija, Ljubljana, 2015), After Europe (State of Concept, Athens, 2016), The Scottish-European Parliament (CCA, Glasgow, 2018) and Museum as Parliament (with the Democratic Self-Administration of Rojava, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, 2018-ongoing), Extinction Wars (with Radha D’Souza, Gwangju Museum of Art, 2023) and Propaganda Station (Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje, 2024). His projects have been exhibited widely at venues such as the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, M_HKA in Antwerp, Moderna Museet in Stockholm and the Nam June Paik Art Center in Seoul, as well as the 7th Berlin Biennale, the 31st São Paulo Biennale and the 12th Taipei Biennale. Publications include Steve Bannon: A Propaganda Retrospective (Het Nieuwe Instituut, 2018), Propaganda Art in the 21st Century (The MIT Press, 2019) and Training for the Future Handbook (with co-editor Florian Malzacher, Sternberg Press, 2021). Staal completed his PhD research on propaganda art at the PhDArts program of Leiden University, the Netherlands.
Art collective founded in 2003 in Sankt Peterburg, Russia
Becoming with the Museum, 2017
Video, 39’11”
Acquisition: Gift
Reference: 05197
The video donated by Chto Delat documents the process in which they worked with a group of young artists and created a performance, which shows the relationship of the participants with the selected works of art from the collection of MoCA Skopje. The work connects the macro-narrative of different works of art (when and how they are created, their social significance, etc.) with the micro-narrative of each performer, who through his body and lyrical text explains the relationship with the selected work. The work is a refreshing map of the museum and the history of the young generation that activates the transformative potential of the museum.
The collective Chto Delat (What is to be done?) was founded in early 2003 in Petersburg by a workgroup of artists, critics, philosophers, and writers from St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Nizhny Novgorod with the goal of merging political theory, art, and activism. The name of the group derives from a novel by the Russian 19th century writer Nikolai Chernyshevsky, and immediately brings to mind the first socialist worker’s self-organizations in Russia, which Lenin actualized in his own publication, “What is to be done?” (1902). Chto Delat sees itself as an artistic cell and also as a community organizer for a variety of cultural activities intent on politicizing “knowledge production”. They advocate for the equality of all people, fighting against various forms of patriarchy, homophobia and gender inequality. They convey their ideas through: film, theater performances, radio programs, murals, public campaigns and seminars.
In their statement on the occasion of the performance and donation, they said:
“Ever since we got to know The Museum of Contemporary Art in Skopje, we fell in love with its space, the relationship between the indoor and outdoor views, its different layers, and its unique collection. We used the chance to work with the space in a performative way, revealing these inspirations.
Museums are spaces where we encounter the accumulation of different art pieces combined in one display, offering the viewer a multiplicity of experiences. They are built in order to amplify it. The Contemporary Art Museum in Skopje is the best example with its vantage position over the city, with its elegant cement and glass surfaces which help us feel and engage with artworks in a decent and proper way.
We worked in this amazing space for 5 days with a group of young artists and we conceived a performance around the exhibition spaces which reflects the relation of the seminar’s participants to the selected pieces of artworks. We wanted to link the macro narrative of different art works (when and how they are created, their social meaning, etc.) with a micro-narrative of every performer who was challenged to explain with her body and lyrical text the relations to the work and thus create a transformative and refreshing mapping of the museum and history of young generation which activate the transformative potential of museum.”
1965, Germany
Blue Connection 2, 2020
Mixed media on wood, 20 x 20 x 2 cm
Acquisition: Gift
Reference: 05199
1965, Eschenbach, Germany
Greta, 2021
Photography, collage, 29,6 x 21,3 cm
Acquisition: Gift by the artist
Reference: 05298
1981, Diyarbakır, Turkey
Living Beings Squatting Institutions (The Weimaraner Dog of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston), 2020
Plaster, 105 x 157 x 74
Acquisition: Gift by the artist
Reference: 05225
1933, Gunclje, Slovenija – 2016, Prebold, Slovenija
Message, 1964
Acrylic and oil on canvas, 140 x 140 cm
Acquisition: Gift
Reference: 00371
Biography
Janez Bernik (6 September 1933 – 15 July 2016) was a multiple-time awarded and internationally acclaimed Slovenian painter and academic. Bernik was a versatile artist, who reached excellent results in painting, sculpture, graphic design, illustration, tapestry, book design, and poetry. His graphic prints are kept in numerous worldwide-known galleries and collections.
The excerpt from Bernik’s biography is from Wikipedia in accordance with Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons License.
Read the full entry wikipedia.org/wiki/Janez_Bernik
1987, Fier, Albania
Small House, Home Sweet Home, 2014
350 plaster and acrylic colored houses, each 5 x 5 cm
Acquisition: Gift by the artist
Reference: 5277
1928, Hartford,USA – 2007, New York, USA
Straight lines in four directions and all their possible combinations, 1973
Etching on paper, full set of 15, 26.7 x 26.7 cm each
Edition of 25 copies with 10 AP, Publisher: Parasol Press, Ltd., New York, Printer: Crown Point Press, Oakland; inscription on the back of the print: Lewit S
Acquisition: Gift
Reference: from 03154 to 03169 (03157)
Biography
Solomon “Sol” LeWitt was an American artist linked to various movements, including conceptual art and minimalism. LeWitt came to fame in the late 1960s with his wall drawings and “structures” (a term he preferred instead of “sculptures”) but was prolific in a wide range of media including drawing, printmaking, photography, painting, installation, and artist’s books. He has been the subject of hundreds of solo exhibitions in museums and galleries around the world since 1965. The first biography of the artist, Sol LeWitt: A Life of Ideas, by Lary Bloom, was published by Wesleyan University Press in the spring of 2019
The biography is from Wikipedia under the Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons License.
Read the entire article: wikipedia.org/wiki/Sol_LeWitt
Kent, United Kingdom
Seeds of Change, 2019
Intstallation: wood, metal, ultraviolet lighting, glass, soil, green roof, substrate and capillary matting, wildflowers and printed veiles
Acquisition: Gift by the artist
Reference: 05278
Dan Turner is an artist and educator from London, a Romani born in Kent. Dan trained at St Martins School of Art where he completed a BA Honours in Fine Art (Sculpture). He works across mediums including sculpture, video and painting .
Dan’s practice explores the interaction between Romany and mainstream culture through themes of commercial interchange in Romani life.
He is interested in how human life can be defined and archived through the objects that are made and how these objects communicate across timelines through a shared ‘material’ culture and how they articulate that culture to a wider audience, This is particularly in relation to the Romany community. He sees his art as a reclamation of public space – where once there was a visible Romani presence now there is an absence. He believes there is a need to reset the transactional balance between Traveller and non Traveller, establish dialogue and alter entrenched attitudes.
By using Transactional Objects which have significance across both cultures, Turner examines how Gypsy, Roma and Traveller cultures meet and interact with the dominant culture. Working with migration maps of Roma diasporas and using traditional crafts and occupations such as herbalism, peg and wooden flower making and fortune telling Turner re- imagines Roma past, present and future to challenge mainstream culture’s view of our Roma identities.
Source: danturnerartist.com/about/
