KRZYSZTOF WODICZKO, “POZNAŃ PROJECTION” – PART I
Curator: Janusz Marcianiak
September 19, 2008, at 8 p.m.
The projection will be repeatedly shown
until midnight
The Clock Tower of "Zamek", the Cultural Centre in Poznań (former Imperial Castle)
Press conference with the inhabitants and workers employed in the Social Emergency Group and the artist, Krzysztof Wodiczko: 12:00 September 18, 2008 at "Zamek", the Cultural Centre
more...The initiator and the patron of the "Poznan Projection": the Signum Foundation
Cooperation: The Social Emergency Society (Stowarzyszenie Pogotowie Społeczne) and "Zamek", the Cultural Centre
The Projection was preceded by speeches made by: Marek Raczak (Director of "Zamek", the Cultural Centre), Jarosław Przyborowski (the President of the Signum Foundation), Wojciech Zarzycki (a representative of the Social Emergency Society) and by the artist, Krzysztof Wodiczko
The "Poznań Projection" by Krzysztof Wodiczko takes up the issue of social exclusion and it draws attention to the situation of the homeless in Poznań. Their life stories told in their own words and their body language were recorded by Wodiczko and projected in the monumental architecture of the Clock Tower of the former Imperial Castle in Poznań.
"It is my hope that this Project will create a dual social-aesthetic situation in which the city will allow its "others" to develop and strengthen their weakened or destroyed ability to open up and share their difficult experiences in a public space and that it will enable the participants of the event to get closer to the 'others' with dignity so as to acknowledge their role as the main actors and heroes of the city's Agon" (K. Wodiczko).
In June 2007 the Signum Foundation invited Krzysztof Wodiczko to realize his public project in Poznań. In July Wodiczko for the first time met the homeless at the Social Emergency Group at ul. Borówki in Poznań. As the artist told "Gazeta Wyporcza", "I somehow felt that it was from that particular place that I should start to get to know Poznań, to feel its pulse, to learn about the city seen through the experiences, wounds, scars, hopes and visions of the homeless, the unnoticed".
Krzysztof Wodiczko – is one of the most prominent contemporary artists, Director of the Center for Advanced Visual Studies MIT (Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA). His didactic work is accompanied by incredible theoretical and artistic activity. As an artist he is an excellent example of independence and social engagement. Since the early 1980s Wodiczko has been organizing projections on monuments and historical buildings in various places around the world. His perfected visual projects belong to the best tradition of socially engaged art. The artist frequently exposes the political message of some monuments and looks at what is behind the cultural façade of the liberal society. By projecting the images of objects – instruments and symbolic vehicles, he speaks for the fate of those who have been wronged, the homeless and the unaccepted ("others") as well as for those who are rejected (i.e. immigrants) and for those who are victims of violence. His works are, from an artistic and social point of view, an intriguing expression of thinking with images and combining aesthetics with ethics.
"Guests" a project by Krzyszof Wodiczko, curated by Bożena Czubak is currently (that is until November 22, 2009) presented in the Polish Pavilion at the 53rd International Art Biennale in Venice. The project refers to the issue of multiculturalism and strangeness. The heroes of Wodiczko's projection as suggested by the title are immigrants, who by not being at home remain eternal guests.
Announcement of the "Tower-Lantern" (the second stage of the "Poznań Projection")
The showing of the "Poznań Projection" in the tower of the former Imperial Castle announces the second stage of the project in which the tower is used as an instrument for social communication.
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