devil sculpture

ANETA GRZESZYKOWSKA BIRTHDAY
January 22 to March 6, 2010
After Aneta Grzeszykowska’s acclaimed presentation of two videos in Projectraum and Login
(2008), we will be showing a comprehensive solo exhibition of the young Polish artist’s most
recent films, photographs, and sculptures. Her work is marked by performative (self-)awareness
processes through which she often explores the possibilities and limits of identity.
“Birthday” is the title of her most recent film and is based on archival video footage. The theme is
a child’s first birthday with the usual rituals, such as his first haircut, blowing out the candles, the
usual birthday wishes. Grzeszykowska has altered the order of the individual episodes and added
stop-motion animation, which in fact consists of retouched fragments of the picture. Put together,
this intervention gives the original material a completely new context. At the same time a voiceover narration can be heard over the rituals of the birthday celebration, giving it an eerie touch. “In
the context of the exhibition, private film footage becomes a universal experience, warning about
how absolute and dangerous love can become.” (A.G.)
The photograph “Untitled” and the sculpture “Devil” made of dark monochrome wool also have
an autobiographical point of departure. “Devil” is the reconstruction of a doll Grzeszykowska was
making as a teenager when she unintentionally injured her brother’s eye. The photograph
displayed in a lightbox is a close-up of the now blind eye, revealing the unnatural spilling out of
the pupil into the iris. This autobiographical episode is transcended through its aesthetic
presentation, turning vulnerability into a universal theme.
A group of monochrome “dolls” made of wool (like “devil”) is based on photographic archival
material of Grzeszykowska and those closest to her. The figures are dressed in exact replicas of
the clothes the artist wore as a child. The realism of the figures, however, is not literal. The
monochrome grey gives them an impression of being eerily distant. “These dark figures look like
three-dimensional black holes that have the shape of human beings. It would seem, that their
materiality is an illusion, that they are only empty, hollow places which just a moment ago were
occupied by living creatures”. (A.G.)
Aneta Grzeszykowska, born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1974, studied graphic art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw,
lives and works in Warsaw. Artistic collaboration with Jan Smaga since 1999.
Exhibitions (selection): 2009 Beg Borrow and Steel, Rubell Family Collection/Contemporary Arts Foundation, Miami;
KARAOKE - Bildformen des Zitats, Fotomuseum, Winterthur; Counter Logic, Cooper Gallery, University of Dundee,
Dundee; 2008 "Fotografia Europea – Reggio Emilia 2008", Reggio Emilia; Camera Austria, Graz; "Reality Check",
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen I 2007 Statements, Art Basel; "At Last, Something New!", National Museum,
Krakau; Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw I 2006 Polnisches Institut, Berlin; "New works",
Raster, Warsaw; Vierte Berlin Biennale, Berlin; "Pre-Emptive", Kunsthalle Bern; "Imhibition", National Museum, Krakow
I 2005 Habitat – 6th Baltic Contemporary Art Biennial, National Museum, Szczecin; "Mapping Space", Miami Art
Museum, Miami; "Views 2005 – Deutsche Bank Cultural Foundation Award", Zacheta, Warschau; “Erwartungen",
Kunsthalle Darmstadt I 2004 Palimpsest Museum, Biennial of Polish Art, Lodz; "Paravent", Factory, Kunsthalle Krems;
"Pieces of Identity", Espace Apollonia, Strassbourg I 2003 "Das einverleibte Korsett", St. Johann, Tyrol I 2002 "Blow
up", Palace of Culture and Science, Warsaw I 1999 "India", Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw