Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art is organizing the 4th competition for a work of art in the public space of the Lower Town in the framework of “Outdoor Gallery of the City of Gdansk” project. The aim of the project is to create a collection of works of art in the public space that would permanently change the character of the area. Outdoor Gallery collection will be created through years. Works assigned for realization are chosen by international jury in regularly announced, closed competitions.

 

In the 4th edition of the competition, the crossroads of Kamienna Grobla Street, Dobra Street and Toruńska Street (including a bridge, concrete riverside promenades and a bus stop of the line 120) will constitute the area of the project realization. The artists will take into consideration the historic character of the streets as well as the fact that the area is a meeting point of the paths coming from the prizewinning objects of the previous editions of the competition as well as from Łaźnia Centre for Contemporary Art and leading to the medieval fortifications situated on the border of Dolne Miasto.

The results of the competition will be announced on 11th July during a Press conference hold at Gdańsk City Hall. The opening of an exhibition presenting the awarded works will take place on 9^th September 2011 at Laznia CCA.

 

The following artists were invited to take part in the 4th edition of the competition: Alexandre Arrechea (Cuba), Thorsten Goldberg (Germany), Sabina Lang & Daniel Baumann (Switzerland), Tea Makipaa (Finland), Marcus Miessen (Germany), Olaf Nicolai (Germany), Bert Theis (Luxemburg), Weronika Kiersztejn i Michał Kozik (Poland).

Jury of the competition: Enrico Lunghi, director of Mudam Luxembourg, Jacek Dominiczak, Fine Arts Academy, Gdańsk, Bettina Steinbrügge, curator of Forum Expanded - Berlinale, Germany, Adam Budak, curator of Museum-Joanneum in Graz, Norbert Weber, member of the international board of experts of the Museum of Lativian Modern Art in Riga, Julia Draganovic, art historian, curtor, Modena, Italy, Jadwiga Charzyńska, director of the CSW „Łaźnia” in Gdańsk.

 

 

Curator: Jadwiga Charzyńska

Coordination: Anna Szynwelska

 

 

ARTISTS PARTICIPATING IN THE 4TH EDITION OF „THE OUTDOOR GALLERY OF THE CITY OF GDANSK” COMPETITION

 

 

Alexandre Arrechea (Cuba)

He was born in 1970 in Cuba. In 1994 he graduated from Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) in Havana. His works reflect the fragility of a human life, the lack of freedom and privacy. They have critical overtones in relation to the current governmental structures and the impact of economy in art. At present Arrechea is interested in the limits of art. The installation presented during the venice Biennale , which is one of his latest works, constitutes an elaboration on the subject triumph and failure. He is now realizing his artistic projects concerning the public space on Park Avenue NY for the spring of 2013.

www.alexandrearrechea.com

 

 

Marcus Miessen - nOffice (Germany)

nOffice and its three partners Markus Miessen, Magnus Nilsson and Ralf Pflugfelder are an architectural practice based in Berlin and London. Situated on the crossroads of critical spatial design, architecture, urban intervention and the art world, nOffice have been accumulating expert knowledge about the conceptualization and implementation of archives, libraries, gallery spaces, cultural centres and the typology of the 'hub'. nOffice have been specializing in the development of hetero-typologies. Their recent projects for LU Arts Centre & RADAR Hub, Gwangju Biennial, 0047, Manifesta 8, Performa 09, ASAP, Archive Kabinett, and the longer term Hans Ulrich Obrist Archive are bastard typologies: productive spatial constructs that overlap, dissect, and conflictually flatten several usually distinct programs into one. nOffice believe that bastards are stronger than pedigrees. They are pushing the idea of the heterogeneous space, something like an 'interior city'. www.nOffice.eu

 

 

Tea Makipaa (Finland)

Born in 1973 in Lahti Finland, Tea Makipaa graduated form the Fine Arts Academy in Helsinki and Royal College of Art in London. Her works show a complicated and multilayered world. She is interested in human being as a very effective and unique species that is using her skills among other animals and expressing her fastly changing ideas with the help of technology. A laconic presentation of the physical order of the reality in relation to the structural elements which shape our lives is a characteristic feature of her works.

www.tea-makipaa.eu

 

 

Olaf Nicolai (Germany)

He studied Literature and Linguistucs in Leipzig and Vienna. In 1992 he gained a doctorate for his dissertation concerning the Vienna Group and received a diploma in Fachschule für Angewandte Kunst in Schneeberg. He is a scholarship holder and a winner of numerous awards, e.g. Kunstpreis der Stadt Wolfsburg (2002), Villa Aurora Scholarship in Los Angeles (2008), IASPIS (Sztokholm, 2000), PS1 (New York, 1998), Villa Massimo in Rome (1997/98) and Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes Scholarship (1993). He participated in international individual exhibitions, e.g. Kunstraum Dornbirn (2006), Kunstmuseum Thun (2004), Casino Luxembourg (2003), Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Zurich (2001), Watari-Um Muzeum in Tokio (1998) and joint exhibitions: 51. Biennale in Vennice (2005), 4. Kwangju Biennale (Korea, 2002), Biennale of Sydney (2002), "etre natury", Fondation Cartier (Paris, 1998), Documenta X (Kassel, 1997).

 

 

Thorsten Goldberg(Germany)

Born in 1960, he studied sculpture at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart. Since 1995 Thorsten Goldberg has realized numerous works in public space in Germany and Europe-wide. As a member of different committees and advisory boards he is involved in the election and organisation of competitions for art in public. Thorsten Goldberg is Initiator and Co-Publisher of „Public Art Wiki, an Imagined Library“, the germany-wide internet archive for art in public space in the german-speaking-area (www.publicartwiki.org).

He taught at various universities and art schools. such as the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, the Art Academy in Muenster, he was Adjunct Professor for Art in Public Space at the Art Academy Linz/AT and Professor for arts and media at the Muthesius Art Academy in Kiel/Germany. Since 1990 Thorsten Goldberg lives and works as an artist in Berlin. www.goldberg-berlin.de

 

 

Lang/Baumann (Switzerland)

Swiss based artists Sabina Lang (b. 1972, Bern) and Daniel Baumann (b. 1967, San Francisco) have been producing work collaboratively as Lang/Baumann or L/B since the beginning of the 1990s. Informed by both the legacies of Pop Art and the Bauhaus, Lang/Baumann’s practice combines installations, sculptures, architectural interventions and relational strategies. http://langbaumann.com

 

 

Bert Theis (Luxemburg)

Lives and works in Luxembourg and Milan. He is one of a group of artists who became known in 1990s, who through their artworks have created new possibilities for public space. He works as an artist, activist and curator. His works have philosophical, social and political dimensions. Though Theis is generally associated with the many important international exhibitions that have featured his work, e.g. the Venice Biennale, Manifesta 2 or Sculpture Projects, Münster, most of his works are created to be located in the public space of the city. Over the last ten years he has been the organizer of two long-term projects, Isola Art Center and out-Office for Urban Transformation, in the context of an urban conflict between the inhabitants of the Isola district, the Milan city government and an American multinational company.

www.isolartcenter.org

 

 

Weronika Kiersztejn & Michał Kozik (Poland)

Born in 1986, Weronika Kiersztejn and Michał Kozik are graduating from the Silesian University of Technology this year, and are the winners of the Dialogue in Space Competition on the 1st International Biennial of Interior Design in Krakow in 2010. Currently developing design group - muskcollective design.