24.04-31.05.2010

Opening: 24.04.2010, at 6 p.m.

Final 31.05.2010, at 5.p.m

 

Artists: Dave Ball, Vesna Bukovec, Agnieszka Chojnacka, Łukasz Jastrubczak, Agnieszka Kurant, Łukasz Ogórek, Tom Milnes, Kama Sokolnicka, Metka Zupanič

 

Curator: Agnieszka Kulazińska

 

 

How can our times be defined? Roy Ascott, British artist and theorist, has described it as a period of a second flood – an information flood. Pierre Lévy follows this thought and explains it as a vision of a world in which the amount of accessible information has rapidly increased. The present reality is of a chaotic deluge of news, stream of data, cacophony of media and war of images. It can be said that the contemporary world is a place characterized by overproduction of data, information and images. (See: Pierre Lévy, Drugi potop (Second flood), Magazyn Sztuki (Art Magazine) (13-14 (1-2/97)) Can contemporary art be defined as an overproduction of concepts?

The Dump.net is a concept of French artist and theorist Maurice Benayoun, briefly described as a dump or repository of thoughts. It is a website/blog in which the artist puts into store his difficult projects, fuzzy concepts and fleeting visions, ideas which emerge every day. 

 

 

The Dump.net can be defined as a kind of internet forum which is open for interaction with visitors (artists and curators). Each visitor can take something from it and use it, to accomplish it or interpret it.

The Dump.net is a kind of thoughts recycling, it is not the end but the beginning of something which could be brought into existence or materialized. It evokes an interesting situation. In contemporary art it is the concept which is given most importance and on Dump blog the artist allows us to use his thoughts and gives us access to the flow of his creative imagination. Is there a need to produce new ideas if instead the existing one can be used? This question is inherent in Benayoun`s project. We live in times of the ‘big quotation’, the eternal return of old trends, permanent repetitions and interpretations. The original has its genesis in another, the copy read as an original, creates another copy. The process is permanent due to the accessibility of the internet and the omnipresence of mass media. 

 

What today distinguishes artists from the rest of society? Until the beginning of the 20th century everything was simple. Skills were needed to be artists. Artists were creating using disegno and although based on an initial idea the relationship between abilities and concepts were balanced. 20th century art has shifted the situation – art has become the kingdom of ideas. Concepts have become the most important part of artistic activity. Final works can be produced by somebody else, emerge as a result of coincidence or be composed by viewers.

 

“The Dump – recycling of thoughts” is not an original idea – it is an interpretation of Maurice Benayoun`s concept. In the ‘instances’ article on Dump website it can be read that projects contained there are a kind of musical score open for interpretation. Artists invited to our project will be asked to choose a concept from Dump and accomplish it. 

“The Dump – recycling of thoughts” project is a kind of experiment, its composition can remain an internet forum. What are the rules of this game? Artists will be asked to search the Dump website seeking inspiration there. They can decide if they want to interpret chosen ideas or to materialize something found there. The.dump.net. in this project is understood as a database, an open source of ideas. Consultations with Maurice Benayoun, all ideas author are not required but possible. The author is absent, only his thoughts are available. 

 

Agnieszka Kulazińska 

 

Acknowledgments for help in translation of the blog from French to Polish to:

Students of Francophonic Studies of Gdańsk University, under the supervision of Tomasz Swoboda Ph.D.: Agnieszka Białowolska, Jowita Ciszewska, Justyna Degórska, Nikola Dampc, Sylwia Giełażyn, Małgorzata Guryńska, Monika Jedwabnik, Zuzanna Kacprzak, Anna Kapuścińska, Michał Kasper, Marcelina Klassa, Marta Kowalczyk, Marta Łojek, Klaudia Małecka, Joanna Małek, Marta Michalczyk, Anna Mikulińska, Maria Miszkiewicz, Marta Muszyńska, Aleksandra Tymińska, Grzegorz Uberman, Anna Okulska, Irina Ovcinicov, Zuzanna Rezmer, Magda Starobrat; the Gdańsk History Museum: Rafał Jasko.

 

 

Although Agnieszka Chojnacka does not like this word, her works interrogates subject of utopia which she finds in completely trivial things for example in dreams about flying, walking to the other side of the rainbow. Her works can be read as pokes given to reality which may make you smile, give you a break from everyday problems, but a sharper observer will find questions about human interrelations, dreams, and an artist’s role in society. 

Agnieszka Chojnacka graduated from Academy of Fine Art in Łódź. Her works have been presented during the Third Young Art Biennale Rybie Oko in Słupsk (2004), the Art Fair in Poznań (2005), the Second Łódź Biennale (2006), the Art Fair in Strasbourg (2006), the Young Festival Przeciąg in Szczecin (2007), and the Fourth Youth Triennale in Orońsk (2008). In 2006 she received a scholarship in the UK (under the Accession Project), in Strasbourg, and in 2008 in Israel. 

 

Sense of humor is one of the distinctive features of Dave Ball`s work: the artist is interested in nonsense, its ability to create ruptures in reality and, paradoxically, to reveal its sense. In his work, Ball consistently shifts borders, transgressing accepted rules in typically discreet and amusing ways. However, destabilising rationality isn`t the only goal of the artist. By introducing these ruptures to reality he is able to analyze the contemporary urban environment, highlighting its not-easily-visible threats to individual freedom. Ball asks what kind of behavior our surroundings extort on us. And what kind of sense does it implicate? Dave Ball graduated from Goldsmiths College w London and University of Derby. His works have been presented in the UK, the USA and Germany. 

 

Deconstruction of media language and an analysis of its influence on contemporary, human identity are the main subjects of Vesna Bukovec`s works. In her artistic practice she uses a wide range of artistic strategies: research, documentary approach, appropriation, art activism, public actions, collaboration with the public and personal interpretation. Formally, her projects are based on video, photography, drawing and installation. In early works Vesna Bukovec was interested in the questioning of the role of artists, and the presentation and reception of contemporary artworks. Lately she is focused in research of the consumer society and positive psychology.

Vesna Bukovec graduated from Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana. Together with Metka Zupanič and Lada Cerar, she forms KOLEKTIVA group. Her works have been presented on group exhibitions in Ljubljana, Slovenj Gradec, Zagreb, Belgrade, Utrecht, Berlin, Hague, Beijing, Linz, Graz, Vienna, etc. and solo shows: in Ljubljana, Nottingham, Zagreb, Celje, Graz, Novo mesto and Maribor 

 

Łukasz Jastrubczak makes drawings, video actions, objects, runs workshops for children and composes electronic music, he plays in music groups POŁĄCZ PUNKTY (LINK DOTS), ŚLINA (Saliva) and MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE. He is interested in issues of invisibility, disparition, ephemeral „manifestation” of insanity. In his works, Jastrubczak refers to classical pieces in cinematography, pop-culture and modern art history, his artistic reality becomes a resultant of the real one and the one created by other artists’ works. 

Łukasz Jastrubczak bon in 1984 in Zielona Góra, studied on Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław between 2004-2006 and Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice between 2006-2009 where he obtained the MA degree. His oeuvre includes wide range of media: drawing, video, installation, performance. His works have been exhibited on numerous presentation worldwide, some of them: Contemporary Art Museum in Warsaw (No Sorry, 2008), Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castel in Warsaw (Establishment as the source of suffering, 2008). His three-month artistic residency in Art in General (New York) finished with solo exhibition (Distant Drum, 2010). Furthermore, his works have been presented on solo exhibition, some of them: Centre for Contemporary Art Kronika in Bytom ("01" 2007, "Film Noir" 2008, "2013" 2009), BWA Zielona Góra ("NTSC" 2010) and ZAK BRANICKA Gallery, Berlin ("White Video" 2009). 

 

Agnieszka Kurant's works are attempts to exceed barriers of accustomed logic, to surpass the schemas, in which we live, to transgress limits of language, time, economy, authorship, place, specific character of media. Her works create the semi-real space oscillating between visibility and invisibility, truth and lies, past and future, magic and everyday news.

Agnieszka Kurant graduated from PWSFTiTV in Lódź, University of Łódź and Goldsmiths College, University of London. Her works have been presented in Yvona Lambert Gallery in New York, Palais de Tokyo in Paris, Tate Modern in London and also in Berlin, Moscow, Bucharest and Geneva. In 2008 she developed her project within the framework of Frieze Projects, Frieze Art Fair in London. “Unknown, unknown” Kurant`s first monograph was published in October 2008 by Sternberg Press. 

 

Łukasz Ogórek is interested in analysing theoretical and technical possibilities of new media, he continuous quests of avant-garde artists. Jarek Lubiak defines his work using term - techno minimalism. Łukasz Ogórek, in his works plays with modernistic theories of representation, artist and viewer. 

Łukasz Ogórek graduated from the Academy of Fine Art in Lódź where he has worked as a tutor since 2003 (Multimedia Faculty (V13)). Since 2009 he run course of Basics of Multimedia. Received scholarships: Nottingham Trent University (the UK), Radius of Art Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum (Egypt). He took part in numerous exhibitions, some of them: Dreizehnthirteen Gallery Berlin (2010), MS3 Re:action, Art Museum in Łódź (2009), Radius OF Art, Iltis Bunker, Cologne, Germany (2008), Mediations Biennale in Poznań (2008), Camouflash. Dissapearing in The Art, Prager Spitze in Dresden, Germany (2008), Wschodnia Gallery in Łódź (solo exhibition 2007), Art Museum in Łódź (Museum as a Luminous Object of Desire, 2006) Art Biennale in Łódź (2006), 4 Biennale of Polish Photography in Poznań (2005) Young Polish Video, Bunkier Sztuki in Kraków (2004) ST-ART, the Art Fair in Strasbourg, France (2004). 

 

Tom Milnes is interested in cultures reliant on technology, cultures that only occur because of the invention/popularity of certain technologies. In previous works Milnes has looked at particular audio effects and recording techniques that have shaped popular music, recreating an working Roland Space Echo tape delay machine and using it in a performance to produce Dub, like the Reggae producers of the 70’s. His work spans performance, installation and New Media including web-based interactive projects.

Tom Milnes graduated from Oxford Brookes University. His work were exhibited mainly in the UK and the Netherlands. 

 

Kama Sokolnicka`s works have been mainly focused on processes connected with place, territory, image as a function of memory, emotions, perception, necessity of orientation in surrounding and horror vacui phenomenon. She oscillates between observing and being inside/inward. She uses various media in order to analyze relations among space, human beings and objects: everything what happens between those elements is significant, what is immanent in them is less important. Those relations are being reflected in forms and materials which Sokolnicka uses. 

Kama Sokolnicka graduated from Wrocław Academy of Fine Arts, 

Artistic residences in Centre Europeen d’Actions Artistiques Contemporaines CEAAC in Strasbourg (2004). Artworks in the collection of The Lower Silesian Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts as well as in private collections. Since 2008 she has collaborated with Tomasz Zalejski-Smoleń (main award at 8th Racibórz Art Festival for the joint work “Still Life” in 2008, shortlisted for WARTO (2010) art prize of Gazeta Wyborcza. Her works have been presented in Poland, Sweden, Germany, the UK. 

 

Metka Zupanič

"The basics of my projects are connections between me and the persons asked to collaborate. To achieve this, I use various media. I understand the artistic process as a form of meditation, exchange and collaboration. This way of realization is presumed as the artistic goal – a study of relations and spaces that forms among people. Very often my projects are concerned with local environment. The content of the framework is space between, where me and a co-operative person are joined. Such space between is the integration of me and any individual, the quality of this space is supposed to be the artistic goal of the project in which an individual takes active part." 

Metka Zupanič graduated from Academy of Fine Arts an Design in Ljubljana. She studied in the National College of Art and Design in Dublin. Her works have been presented on the numerous exhibitions in Europe.