KÜNSTLERHAUS

BETHANIEN

Exhibition

Polish!

Contemporary art from Poland

We’ve remained strangers to each other. That is why we have this constant yearning for normality. What do we know about our neighbors? Are there conflicts? How does each of us reconcile himself with his background? What interests Poles and Germans about each other? An exhibition titled “Polish! Contemporary Art from Poland”, which revolves around certain ideas of unquestioned traditions and patriotic wishful thinking, accepts the risk of failure. All over the world, religious identities are intensifying. Beyond that, processes of societal transformation outside of Europe are stimulating the formation of national identity, which in turn has effects on societal developments within Europe. The artists of this exhibition are cosmopolitan and reflect what is not self-evident about their own identities. Instead of social-scientific generalities, what awaits us in the exhibition are objects, video installations, and paintings in which artists with wit and intelligence explore constructions of identity on the one hand and traumatic denials of identity on the other.

Artists: Michał Budny, Rafał Bujnowski, Hubert Czerepok, Sławomir Elsner, Michał Jankowski, Katarzyna Kozyra, Paweł Książek, Dominik Lejman Roman, Lipski Piotr, Uklański Urban Art (Marek Pisarsky + Anne Peschken), Artur Żmijewski.

On Friday, 21st October 2011 at 7 pm a lecture by Anda Rottenberg (Warsaw) will be given in the exhibition spaces. In this context, the publication “Polish! Contemporary Art from Poland” will be presented to the public. It has been edited by the ŻAK BRANICKA Foundation (Berlin), with a foreword by Anda Rottenberg and contributions from 29 authors on the work of 37 Polish artists. Concept: Monika Branicka and Asia Żak, published in 2011 in German and English editions in Hatje Cantz Verlag.

Exhibition
21.10. – 13.11.2011
Tue - Sun: 2 - 7pm
Admission free

Opening
20.10.2011