In his films, Żmijewski is at the same time in the position of an observer, documenting people and situations, but also the immediate catalyst of those situations, a shaman-like artist who, ignoring the rules of political correctness and social norms, achieves such radical interventions in the space between himself and his protagonists, as, for example, in 80064 (2004), where he manages to convince a former Auschwitz prisoner to allow his faded tattoo with the prisoner number be renewed. In many of his works, Żmijewski deals obsessively with the issues of the human body, subject to disease and decay, and the relations of physicality and the sphere of mind and spirituality. He is also involved in exploring taboos, the hypocritical relation of society towards disabled individuals, the sensitive borders between himself as artist, and his protagonists, i.e. subjects, where his role constantnly varies between its emancipatory and exploitative potentials.
Karolina and other filmsArtur Žmijevski (PL)
Karolina, 2002, 8min
Out for a Walk, 2001, 9min
Rendez-vous, 2004, 8min
Singing Lesson 1, 2001, 14min
Singing Lesson 2, 2003, 16:30min
Artur Žmijevski (PL)
Artur Żmijewski (born 1966 in Warsaw) is counted as one of Poland’s most renowned contemporary artists. In the beginning of the early Nineties Artur Żmijewski visited (with Pawel Althamer and Katazyna Kozyra) the master studio of the artist and professor Grzegorz Kowalski at the sculptor faculty of the Warsaw academy of arts. He began to work as a sculptor, but after his diploma, he changed the medium to photography and film. Żmijewski was also active as a free curator and critic in Poland until the late 1990s. has had a number of solo and group exhibitions, e.g. Artur Żmijewski, Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland (2005); Das unmögliche Theater, Kunsthalle Wien, Austria (2005); Irreducible: Contemporary Short Form Video 1995–2005, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, USA (2005); Artur Żmijewski. Selected Works, 1998 – 2003, MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, SAD (2004); Under the red and white flag. New art from Poland, Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland (2004); Manifesta 4, Frankfurt on the Main, Germany (2002); in freiheit / endlich – Polnische Kunst nach 1989, Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Germany (2000). In 2005, the artist represented the Polish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale and most recently he participated at the Documenta 12. The Video-Forum of the NBK in Berlin honoured his work with a comprehensive solo exhibition in Berlin (2007).
