Angelika Markul. New Moon (2009)
Angelika Markul is one of the most interesting artists of the new generation. The artist made her debut with the Sen Muchy (A Fly’s Dream ) exhibition in Galeria Foksal in 2006. During the inauguration of CoCA in Torun (2008), she presented her spectacular foam sculpture entitled Iceberg.
Markul uses an extremely specific repertoire of forms, combining video images with installations constructed of glass, wood, black foil, eye irritating lamps, or industrial ventilators. Certain elements constantly appear in her works, forming new configurations and arranging the space differently. During the NEW MOON exhibition – an extensive presentation of Angelika Markul’s art – CoCA’s interiors will become a giant installation, composed of her previous videos, sculptures and a site-specific project.
The title of Markul’s exhibition is derived from one of the phases of the Moon, in which it can’t be seen from the Earth. This particular season is described in many cultures as an extremely fortunate period, the time of purification, balance, transformation, or the time of sowing. Paradoxically, the works of Angelika Markul manifest neither harmony, nor alleviation. The highly sensual world, created by the artist, is disturbing, even repulsive; a world on the verge of decay, that makes us avert our eyes. The artist is fascinated with places covered with dirt and mantles of snow. The eye of the video camera leads us throughout nooks frozen in time, through attic spaces that seem neglected, where we can witness micro catastrophes… While manoeuvring through this world, the viewer is forced to lean on one’s senses and intuition. Reality mixes with irrational, overscaled landscapes, inhabited by trapped exotic plants and animals. Movie scenes take place in the radically composed, dramatic background, illuminated with pale, glimmering light, surrounded by ‘latex’ forms and wheezing ventilators.
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Angelika Markul was born in Szczecin. She has lived and worked in Paris since 1997. In 2003 she graduated from Paris Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts in multimedia, directed by Christian Boltanski. Collaborates with the Galerie Frédéric Giroux in Paris and Kewenig Galerie in Koln. She has participated in many international exhibitions, both group and individual, e.g. in Paris (Fondation Cartier, Museum d’Art Moderne Contemporain de la Ville de Paris, Méta Zone, MK2 Bibliotheque, Museum Luxembourg , Grand Palais du Louvre, Hudson au Grand Palais, Chatelet Theatre, Cosmic Galerie a Paris, Galerie Frédéric Giroux), at Castello di Rivoli, at Museo d’Arte Contemporanea in Turin, at Spazio Culturale La Rada in Locarno, at Kewenig Galerie in Köln, at Trondelag Senter for Samtidskunst w Trondheim, at Substitut in Berlin, at the ART BRUSSELS 2007, at Galerie Salvador Diaz in Madrid, at Musée BankART LIFE a Yokohama in Japan, at Warsaw Foksal Gallery, at Galeria Miejska Arsenał in Poznan, at CSW Zamek Ujazdowski in Warsaw and at the CoCA Znaki Czasu in Torun (her ICEBERG installation was presented during the inauguration of the Centre, on 13-14 June 2008).
Texts: Joanna Zielińska, Jarosław Lubiak, Agnieszka Pindera
Editing by Joanna Zielińska
Translation: Monika Ujma
Photographs: Wojciech Olech, Robert Ronowski, Angelika Markul
Design and typesetting: www.full-metal-jacket.pl
Written in English and Polish
Krzysztof Zieliński. Millennium School (2008)
Krzysztof Zieliński’s series Millennium School comprises 44 photographs taken in Primary School No. 3 in Wąbrzeźno, the artist’s hometown already featured in his earlier photographic projects. Millennium School constitutes a nostalgic trip through the land of childhood, a journey in memory. However, the place that the artist visits now is different from what he remembers, as though it had been radically though ineptly rejuvenated. The confrontation of memories with the present day has brought about a series of colour photographs, slightly unreal and suffused with tenderness. “My former teacher cried when she saw these pictures”, Zieliński texted from Wąbrzeźno.
A sentimental retrospective is only one of possible interpretations of the series. The title of the exhibition refers directly to historical background of the days when the artist was growing up. The erection of so-called “Millennium Schools” followed a 1960s propaganda programme by Władysław Gomułka, the First Secretary of the Polish United Workers’ Party. The schools were supposed to be the Party’s gift to the Polish nation for the occasion of the thousandth anniversary of Poland’s statehood as well as a reaction to church anniversary celebrations of the baptism of Poland. Apart from spacious gyms, some of the buildings also had underground shelters. The artist started school in 1981, shortly before the introduction of the Martial Law, and finished it in 1989, shortly after the Round Table Talks. In Millennium School, the artist’s childhood, definitely belonging to the past, permeates the slightly refined present of the Polish sticks.
The Millennium School exhibition feature a radio play for children, constituting an audio guide to the show. Each of the presented works is commented on, sometimes in a surprising or dreamlike way. The play have a loose, fable-like plot focusing on school matters, photography and art.
Krzysztof Zieliński was born in Wąbrzeźno in the north of Poland in 1974. He left his hometown at the age of 18 and has never come back there to stay but the town, revisiting it and confronting the past with the presence have dominated his artistic activity so far. The artist lived away from his hometown in the 1990s, the period of massive social and economic transformation. The series Hometown was created from 2000 to 2003. Two following projects, Random Pleasures (2002-2005) and Seens (2006-2007) drew upon the artist’s private experiences – the documentary gave in to emotions. Millennium School (2007) combines the two approaches: the objective documentary character of Hometown and the emotional intensity of Random Pleasures. Zieliński graduated from the prestigious Department of Photography at the FAMU in Prague. He debuted in Poland in Galeria Zderzak in Kraków in 2001. He participated in numerous solo and group and exhibitions both in Poland and abroad, including the 26th Sao Paulo Biennial and a solo exhibition in Zachęta Gallery in Warsaw, both in 2004.
The photographs from the Millennium School cycle belong to the collection of the Centre of Contemporary Art Znaki Czasu in Toruń.
A Subiective Guide to Collections (2008)
A Subjective Guide to Collections features a selection of private collections based in the Kujawsko-Pomorski Region. Written by the collectors themselves and dedicated to them, the publication also constitutes a collection. It presents unusual people, uncommon objects and the secrets behind them. They belong to private people, societies or even small communities. Most of the collections presented in the book keep growing on daily basis; some of them have just been hunted down. These collections may not be spectacular or have any material value or scientific significance but their potential is entirely different from that of museum collections. The guide reveals ‘what is hidden’ and shows the world as a singular array; it also raises the question of the purpose of collecting. The book is an integral part of exhibition Flowers of our Lives which inaugurated the CoCA in Toruń. This publication encourage reflection about the phenomenon of collecting both within a particular locality and in reference to art and contemporary artists practices, which are the main focus of the exhibition. The guide may come in handy for collectors as a source of vital information on objects which they are still in search of and inspire others to take up that hobby.
Flowers of Our Lives (2008)
Flowers of Our Lives, CoCA in Torun, 2008, curated by Joanna Zielinska, exhibition designer Robert Rumas
Artists invited: Jesper Alvaer, Kutlug Ataman, Walerian Borowczyk, Oskar Dawicki, Wojtek Doroszuk, Lilla Khoór and Will Potter, Robert Kuśmirowski, Goshka Macuga, Anetta Mona Chisa and Lucia Tkáčová, Janina Turek, Łukasz Skąpski, Andrzej Urbanowicz
There is something extremely appealing and also very disturbing in collecting, systematizing and organizing objects into collections. Sigmund Freud, a neurologist and psychiatrist who had a great collection of works of art, considered collecting to bring erotic pleasure. Philosopher Manfred Sommer wrote about the treacherous urge to collect, which makes the one who started collecting unable to refrain from doing so. The essence of collecting is searching for means to organize the world around; it is an attempt to regain control over reality by creating one’s own safe world. Susan Sontag wrote in The Volcano Lover that: “the world of a collector is a proof of the existence of other worlds, energies, domains, epochs, which are different from the one in which a collector lives”. A collector is often possessed by existential fear and an anxiety about inevitable death; amassing and organizing objects brings a momentary relief.
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Flowers of Our Lives is an exhibition focused on the phenomenon of collecting presented from sociological and psychological perspectives. Analysing private stories as well as collectors and artists’ struggles with the infinity of matter, the project focuses on amateur collections which are not related to art; it is about fetishism, desire, and obsession. The exhibition also analyses some contemporary artistic practices related to collecting which concentrate on ‘abandoned’, common, and visually unattractive objects. Exhibited works also demonstrate formal references to modernist traditions – assemblage, readymades or collage.
The exhibition Flowers of Our Lives examines people’s motivation to collect, for everything can be collected: objects, even worthless ones, but also fleeting experiences. In this sense human life is also a kind of collection. The exhibition examines the limits of the notion of collection and the way in which collecting is different from simple gathering.
An important theme is the problem of exclusion and lack of understanding faced by passionate collectors. Many of them hide their collections or live in isolation for this reason. The exhibition is symbolically opened by a figure of a somnambulist (Goshka Macuga’s sculpture), originally from Robert Wiene’s film The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari. The somnambulist symbolizes both individualism and alienation. The book entitled A Subjective Guide to Collections constitutes an integral part of the exhibition.
Texsts: Dominik Kuryłek, Tomasz F. de Rosset, Olivier Coron, Jarosław Lubiak, Joanna Zięba, Jiří Ptáček, Nermin Saybasili, Daniel Bird, Kamila Wielebska, Magdalena Ujma, Kuba Szreder, Agnieszka Pindera, Sally O’Reilly, Daniel Muzyczuk, Ewa Małgorzata Tatar, Sebastian Cichocki
Editing by: Joanna Zielińska
Translations: Monika Ujma, Tłumaczenia: Joanna Białek, Soren Gauger, Robin Gill, Anna Leyk, Paweł Wuttke
Photography: Wojciech Olech
Design and typesetting: full-metal-jacket
Curating an institution. CoCA in Torun, Poland (2008 – 2010)
A curator’s role in not only to create a framework and a stage but also to create a moment of potentiality, where art and life meet each other.
Places that display art increasingly resemble huge entertaiment centers, where you can have an excellent cup of coffee, watch an interesting film, buy coffee-table books and souvenirs, or look through magazines – simply enjoy the small pleasures of life. We should, however, not forget that there is more to art institutions than this…
Exciting events happen, fascinating stories are told and answers are found to proplexing questions. These are contemporary cabinets of curiosities, filled with amazing objects and fleeting impressions. The first director of the Pompidou Centre in Paris believed that the muzeum is an erotic space, dedicated to pleasure, where vievers can dream whithout restrictions.
Founded in 2008, the Centre of Contemporary Art in Torun (Poland) is one of the newest institutions solely dedicated to contemporary art in Poland. Through its multi-dimensional program, international exhibitions, artists talks, artist-in-residence, publications, education programs and its collection, CoCA has presented the most interesting faces of contemporary art and related fields.
CoCA’s programme in 2008 – 2010 was largely focused on the concept of ‘glocality’ or putting a global perspective on local phenomena and artistic education, providing a springboard for the development of the identity of peripheral institutions.
Joanna Zielinska is the former Chief Curator at the Centre of Contemporary Art in Toruń (Poland), where she curated the inaugural exhibition and program from 2008-2010. She curated selected exhibitions and co-curated the long-term residency programme for professionals: This trip will change your art and the Studio + Kitchen project.
CoCA listings: 8 236,59 sq m: floor surface, 4,146 sq m: exhibitionspace, 552,27 sq m: roof and viewing terrace, 1554 sq m: WiFi range, 457,63 sq m: Studio & Kitchen, 5 stroreys ,3 lifts, 3 staircases, 13 office rooms, 80 parking spaces in the underground car park, 10 bicycle parking in the underground car park, 40 seats in the cafe, 136 seats in the cinema, 1 perfoormance pool, 1 cloakroom, 1 reading room, 1 bookshop, 1 outdoor cafe, 1 conference room, 1 openable window, 42 pieces of furniture in Studio & Kitchen, 446 works in the collection, 3,70 metres: height, 7,28metres height in the largest space, 328 base lights, 22 pillars, 35 big exhibitions, 8 festivals, 3 conferences, several dozen events in Studio & Kitchen, 70 educational workshops, 9 exhibition catalogues, 9 educational guide, 3 audio guides, 14 brochures, over 130 000 visitors, 60 000the cinema’s tickets.
Artists: Jan Bas Ader, Kutlug Ataman, Johanna Billing, John Bock, Monica Bonvicini, Walerian Borowczyk, Jordi Colomer, Los Carpinteros, Oskar Dawicki, Fischli & Weiss, Regina José Galindo, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Jiří Kovanda, Robert Kuśmirowski, Goshka Macuga, Teresa Margolles, Ana Mendieta, Merzbow, Deimantas Narkevičius, Ernesto Neto, Friedrich Jürgenson, Susan Philipsz, Allan Sekula, Hans Schabus, Gregor Schneider, Javier Téllez and Costa Vece.
Credits: CoCA in Torun, photo Wojciech Olech
Past is a foreign country (curated by A. Pindera and A. Kononiuk), Ideal exhibition. Supergroup Azorro (curated by J. Zielińska), The Yellow Spot. Tilman Wendland (curated by K. Bittner), The Melancholy of Resistance.Works from the collection MuCA in Atwerp (curated by: A. Pindera and D. Muzyczuk)
Photoservice for the People by Robert Kuśmirowski (2004)
This project by Robert Kuśmirowski draws from the history of the place where Potocka Gallery once operated. In the 1920s the professional photographic studio of Stanisław Mucha was here. The artist arranged the space to imitate the old photographic studio. During the exhibition Robert Kuśmirowski took vintage photos of the visitors.
What Will Happen to Us? (2006)
What Will Happen to Us?, Potocka Gallery, Kraków, 2006, curated by Joanna Zielinska
Artists invited: Kuba Bąkowski, Rafał Bujnowski, Oskar Dawicki, Josef Dabernig, Stanisław Drożdż, Edward Dwurnik, Matthias Herrmann, Koji Kamoji, Andreas Kaufmann, Milan Kniżak, Karolina Kowalska, Paweł Książek, Robert Kuśmirowski, Piotr Lutyński, Małgorzata Markiewicz, Bogdan Perzyński, David Rabinowitch, Daniel Rumiancew, Jadwiga Sawicka, Janek Simon, Łukasz Skąpski, Mikołaj Smoczyński, Grzegorz Sztwiertnia, Monika Wiechowska, Jacek Zachodny, Otto Zitko.
Private Collection, Potocka Gallery, Kraków, 2006, curated by Joanna Zielinska (see slidseshow: objects in showcase)
2006 marks the twenty-year anniversary of the Potocka Gallery. The Private Collection is a special presentation of the collection which has been gathered by the gallery director Maria Anna Potocka for twenty years. It is a show which is against big museum conceptions and events such as arts biennials. This project was designed to show works that were difficult to classify, which were somewhere in-between art and its residue. They were works made on the spot, gadgets, drawings on napkins, sketches of ideas, objects remaining after a performance. They were elements of a bigger whole, things which were very often stripped of their previous context. The collection created a very private story and at the same time it was a mark of the artist’s presence within the gallery. Why shouldn’t we follow the concept realized in the Women’s Museum in Aarhus (Denmark) and let the public access the hermetic knowledge usually hidden by the museologists: „of improper objects and stories, things which are private and embarrasing, private doubts (…) knowledge which is usually concealed”*. The exhibition asked many important questions about the definition of an artwork and a collection, about the artist’s place in the museum and finally about how museums should look nowadays since the model of “a huge cathedral of art” has irrevocably passed. The collection was shown as a part of a larger project called What Will Happen to Us? It is also a statement about the identity of the place itself and its history.
* J. Sandahl, Tangled up in Love. The Women’s Museum in Denmark, European Museum of the Year Award News, 1993, s. 9)
Artists invited: Jerzy Bereś, John Blake, Rafał Bujnowski, Stanisław Drożdż, Paweł Freisler, Nan Hoover, Uwe Max Jansen, Herakliusz Lubomirski, Vlado Martek, Tomasz Osiński, Ben Patterson, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Zbigniew Sałaj, Zbigniew Warpechowski, Peter Weibel, Anastazy B. Wiśniewski.
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Exgirls (2003 – 2008)
From 2003 to 2007 Joanna Zielinska worked together with Magdalena Ujma as the informal curatorial group exgirls.
Photo by Jon Mikel Euba (GOWAR), Bad News, 2006
Selected exhibitons curated by exgirs:
Last News, Centre for Contemporary Art ‘Łaźnia’, Gdańsk, 2007
Artists invited: Carla Cruz, Hubert Czerepok, Christoph Draeger, Jon Mikel Euba, Pavel Mitenko & David Ter-Oganian, Gianni Motti, Dan Perjovschi, Wilhelm Sasnal, Janek Simon, Sean Snyder, Hito Steryl, Walid Raad
Magical recipes for love, happiness and health / Magiczne recepty na miłość, szczęście i zdrowie, f.a.i.t. Gallery, Kraków, 2006
Artists invited: Anetta Mona Chisa i Lucia Tkacova
Bad News, Kronika Gallery, Bytom, 2006
Artists invited: Carla Cruz, Christoph Draeger, Jon Mikel Euba, Grupa Guma Guar, Zbigniew Libera, Antoine Prum, Wilhelm Sasnal, Janek Simon, Sean Synder
Boys, Bunkier Sztuki Gallery, Kraków, 2005
Artists invited: Supergrupa Azorro (Oskar Dawicki, Igor Krenz, Wojciech Niedzielko i Łukasz Skąpski), Anna Baumgart, Kuba Bąkowski, Sławomir Belina, Rafał Bujnowski, Oskar Dawicki, Tomasz Kozak, Katarzyna Kozyra, Paweł Kruk, Artur Malewski, Dorota Nieznalska, Hanna Nowicka, Daniel Rumiancew, Janek Simon, Łukasz Skąpski, Grzegorz Sztwiertnia
Beauty or Painting Effects / Piękno czyli efekty malarskie, Bielska Gallery, Bielsko – Biała, Awangarda Gallery, Wrocław, BWA Zielona Góra, 2004 / 2005
Artists invited: Anna Baumgart, Agata Bogacka, Bogna Burska, Paweł Książek, Małgorzata Markiewicz, Magdalena Moskwa, Anna Orlikowska, Anna Ostoya, Jadwiga Sawicka, Janek Simon, Grzegorz Szwiertnia, Monika Wiechowska
Published as exgirls (selection):
Last News Glossary / Słownik Last News, in Last News, CSW Laźnia, Gdańsk, 2007 (exhibition catalogue)
Bad news (Złe wiadomości), in: Bad News, Kronika Gallery, Bytom, 2006 (exhibition catalogue)
Heroes Are Tired / Bohaterowie są zmęczeni, in: Boys, Bunkier Sztuki Gallery, Kraków, 2005 (exhibition catalogue)
The Currency of Beauty? / Aktualność piękna?, in: Beauty or Painting Effects, Bielska Gallery, Bielsko-Biała, 2004 (exhibition catalogue)
Curatorial career (1998 – 2007)
In 1998, Joanna Zielinska co-founded Koła Gallery at the Institute of Art History at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland which displayed works by Rafał Bujnowski, Kuba Bąkowski, Wilhelm Sasnal, Marcin Maciejowski, and Daniel Rumiancew, among others. The gallery mostly promoted artists born in the 1970s.
photo: Janek Simon, Departure, (animation) 2002
For a short period of time she worked as an assistant at Galeria Krzysztofory.
In 2001 she began collaboration with Potocka Gallery and contributed to the making of the Museum of Modern Art in Niepołomice. Initially, she archived the collection and assisted with staging exhibitions. Later, Joanna Zielinska developed her own curatorial programme and began to manage the collection. The budget of the institution was limited; therefore the gallery’s main objective was to promote young artists.
photo: Nathaniel Mellors, Brain One, Potocka Gallery, Kraków (installation) 2005
From 2003-2007, Joanna Zielinska was also active in the field of art criticism, publishing articles in all important art magazines in Poland; also contributed regularly to several art websites. In 2004 she was awarded a grant by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage for creating a website dedicated to young artists in Poland.
