05 Nov 2008

O ZONE / Joanna Rajkowska & Marlena Kudlicka

O ZONE
Joanna Rajkowska & Marlena Kudlicka (Poland)

curated by Susanne Altmann

What have Joanna Rajkowska's video „Oxygenator' and Marlena Kudlicka's sculpture „How to make a big hole in a small one' in common and what is their relation to the show's title

„O ZONE' ?

Ozone, that is pure oxygen, was bubbling up from a small pond, that Joanna Rajkowska has created in the heart of Warsaw in 2006, at Plac Grzybowski, as temporary meeting place for local inhabitants. The video work „Oxygenator' documents impressively, how this urban oasis with water and sitting devices has emerged literally out of nothing and transformed a neglected urban non-site into a frequented situation.

From 0 (Zero) – zones likes this, that is from mostly ignored situations, Marlena Kudlicka too derives her artistic inspiration. She animates architectural remnants, investor's ruins and construction materials and produces sculptures and murals out of these elements, art works, that combine constructivist elegance with a certain DIY-gesture. „Ozone in the 0-Zone' - that's how one can connect the respective approaches of both artists in the public realm.

Rajkowska gains her orientation mostly from a mental infrastructure, whereas Kudlicka rather focuses on the built environment. For the central show room of Kunsthaus Raskolnikow, Kudlicka develops two new installations: „How to make a big hole in a small one' and „Crop the fake picture', made of bricks, broken glass, soot powder and roofing paper. Besides „Oxygenator', Joanna Rajkowska will also present the film „Maya Gordon goes to Chorzow', where the artist accompanies a Jewish artist friend, who emigrated from Poland to Israel 50 years ago on her journey back to the places of her childhood in Warsaw and Silesia.

More info:

Marlena Kudlicka (*1973) & Joanna Rajkowska (*1968) belong to the younger generation of Polish artists that concentrates in their work on post-communist transformation processes in a highly sensitive and professional way. Both artists are dedicated to the subject of urban space, yet in a different manner. Rajkowska has gained high international and national reputation with her implementation of a monumental artificial palm tree on Warsaw's central Jerusalem Avenue in 2002. Her intervention has triggered a major debate on artistic comments in the urban environment and its political implications. Very soon the work „Greetings from Jerusalem Avenue' achieved symbolic value for critical initiatives and socially marginalized actvists in Poland. Until today, the palm tree asserts its position in Warsaw's city center.

Marlena Kudlicka reflects on the meaning of of Polish modernism in architecture and visual art, that is rich of tradition. In her installationens in gallery spaces, she uses quotes and elements of the avant-garde und re-evaluates their contemporary relevance. By doing so, she combines „high' material as polished metal with „low' ones as for instance roofing paper and often connects it with lettering and characteristic typography. Her most recent project, titled „SLASH for existing structure', will be realized in the Polish city of Poznan next year – here she is planning to „recycle' an existing, abandoned steel structure in the city. While it once served as a display for slogans and propaganda messages, Kudlicka is going to revitalize it as a constructivist art work in public space and therefore negates its alleged redundance. Similar to Rajkowska's palm tree, „SLASH' is about a symbolic value that encourages a calm and responseful approach to relics from the recent past.

The exhibition O ZONE is supported by:

City Council of Dresden, Department of landmark preservation and culture
Polish Institute Leipzig