Artur Zmijewski
Screening of the film “Them / Sie” (2007) Followed by a conversation with Pierre Bal-Blanc, Director of CAC Bretigny, which will adress the artist’s text “Applied Social Arts” published in 2007 in the journal Krytyka Poltyczna (Political critique). Extract: “Does contemporary art have any visible social impact? Can the effects of an artist’s work be seen and verified? Does art have any political significance?-?besides serving as a whipping boy for various populists? Is it possible to engage in a discussion with art?-?and is it worth doing so? Most of all, why are questions of this kind viewed as a blow against the very essence of art?” On this occasion, “Applied Social Arts” will be translated in French. The conversation will be held in English. Visual artist Artur Zmijewski, born in 1966 in Warsaw (Poland), works almost exclusively with the media of photography and film. He is particularly interested in the power of art and its relation to politics. From an almost anthropological viewpoint he investigates social norms, morality and representations of power in today’s society and the effects that art have on it. Zmijewski studied in the sculpture class of Professor Grzegorz Kowalski at the Warsaw Art Academy from 1990 to 1995 as well as at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam in 1999. His work has been internationally shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions. In 2005 he represented Poland at the 51st Art Biennale in Venice. He is member of the Polish political movement “Krytyka Polityczna” and the art director of the magazine of the same name. Zmijewski lives and works in Warsaw. He has just been appointed curator of the 7th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art that will take place in 2012.