Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art

ART MESH is an interactive project which encourages its viewers to have active involvement in the newest art. The project has a form of multi-media game whose main objective is to encourage its participants to active co-creation. Art Mesh uses the glitch effect, i.e. digital error in an image used to transform graphics and video. The project participants literally transform a work of new art by their opinions but at the same time they expend context for their perception and understanding. The result of interactions between the image and participants’ opinions will be a collection of art-mems, available on a website The Interchange and during the project résumé When is a neighbour a stranger?

Art Mesh is a follow-up of the interactive action: Let's Do It Together (2011–2014).

Monika Waraxa i Kuba Budzyński are graduates of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. They live and work in London.

In their works they focus on understanding and perception of the newest art. In the period 2011-2014 they created a multimedia project, Let's Do It Together, which involved the recipients to actively co-create their artistic activity. They have initiated the Interchange and are founders of the Orange Boat where they run their own artistic education programme. Their most significant exhibitions: Metal Culture, Peterborough, UK; CSW Łaźnia, Gdańsk; Zderzak Gallery, Cracow; Polish Institute, Berlin; Cul De Sac Gallery, London; National Art Gallery Zachęta, Warsaw; Culture Communication Centre, Klaipeda, Im Brick, Vienna. Portfolio: www.nobrain.pl

Stéphane B. Bourgeois born in Brussels. He lives and works in London. He studied telecommunication engineering at the Telecom ParisTech in Paris and IT at Oxford Brookes University. Since 2013 has been a member of the Interchange. His special profile is: production of large-format projections, special effects and digital postproduction systems. Linux user since 2001. Portfolio: http://www.stephanb.co.uk/

Agata Tannenberg – A graduate of the Wrocław University of Economics and Faculty of Psychology at Wrocław University. Her specialisation is design of comprehensive diagnostic processes and making competence models.

Elżbieta Jabłońska

3 October – 9 November 2014

Venue: ul. Owsiana 1, works outside the building

Works by Elżbieta Jabłońska pose a question whether art may be made of banality and an ordinary life. Is art possible without great inflated ideas? In creating her socially engaged projects, she avoids pathetic words and presenting the world as black-and-white. She successfully avoids the traps of demagogy and journalism. She speaks of important issues in a simple way. As a Super-mother, she mothers the entire world – she helps, arranges vacation, cooks, wraps the presents. Is it possible to provide help to all who needs it? The typically female chores are shameful, marginalised and closed within four walls in the contemporary world. The artist makes them visible and elevates them through art. Social response to her project is a very interesting aspect of her activities. They often reveal and expose, to the daylight, what tends to be invisible and hidden.

Elżbieta Jabłońska graduated Fine Art Faculty at Copernicus University in Torun. She makes installations, performance art and artistic actions. In 2002 she was nominated to the Paszport Polityki award in the field of Fine Arts, she was awarded with an Artist of the Year title after she was chosen by the readers of Gazeta Wyborcza daily in Bydgoszcz. In the same year the Newsweek Polska chose Jabłońska to be one of the most promising artistic personality among young artist generation in Poland. In 2003 she won the first Polish edition of the SPOJRZENIA 2003 award organised by the Deutsche Bank Culture Foundation and the Zachęta National Gallery. Her works have been presented in the US, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, France, Spain, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovenia. She lives in Bydgoszcz and works in Bydgoszcz and Torun.

Andres R. Londono

3 October 2014

KUNSTOMERSERVICE

Action with the residents of ul. Owsianej 1

The project of a Columbian artist, Andres Londono, entitled Kunstomerservice is a “service” for the recipients of the contemporary art. The title is a combination of the German word Kunst, (art) and the English term customer service.

Kunstomerservice is a facility which provide service to art recipients. The project has created a platform for those who have coincidentally, incidentally or consciously had contact with modern art. The project doesn’t exist without a spectator because it needs the needs, opinions, of the art recipients, art gallery curators, and art exhibition organisers to be able to exist. Kunstomerservice is a place where you can place your complaint, suggestion or where you may praise your achievements. The dialogue generates the aesthetic result.

Andrés R. Londoño an artist, painter, drawer combines various artistic styles in his works and makes contextual painting installations. He experiments with techniques and materials.

Andrés R. Londoño graduated his bachelor studies at Jorge Tadeo Lozano University in Bogota. At present, he continues his Master studies in the field of urban space art at Bauhaus University in Weimar. He has had many exhibitions in Alliance Française, Colombo American Centre and Pereira Art Museu. Londoño lives and works in Weimar and Berlin.

Andrea Mastrovito

3 October – 9 November 2014

Drawing installation in an apartment at ul. Owsianej 1/3, first floor

Andrea Mastrovito is mainly interested in painting and its re-interpretations. The traditional technique in his artistic creations has ceased to be a two-dimensional canvas covered with paints. Mastrovito keeps on searching for new materials and tools for drawing, and he often manages to transfer two-dimensional compositions into a three-dimensional space. Mastrovito works are always based on historical research, translated into the contemporary language.

In his drawing installation developed for the When is a neighbour a stranger? project, the artist had analysed the tracks left by the residents of ul. Owsianej 1/3. Mastrovito, in his intervention, emphasises non/vacuum, and non/presence.

Andrea Mastrovito was born in 1978 in Bergamo, Italy where he completed his studies at Accademia Carrara di Belle Arti in 2001. He is a talented, passionate and very productive artist. In 2007 he won the New York Prize. He was awarded by the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs. He took part in individual exhibitions in private galleries in Milano, Florence, Paris, Geneva, Brussels and New York, as well as in contemporary art centres Museo del Novecento in Milano, in Monfalcone and Lacoux. His works were shown in public art exhibitions across Europe and the US.

Joshua Schwebel

www.ostdev.pl

Joshua Schwebel, a Canadian artist often uses cheating strategies in his works. The artistic activities pretend to be ordinary, daily situations – flyers, advertising papers, promotional campaigns of a developer company. The object taken away from its traditional communication channel receives new artistic functions.

Joshua Schwebel’s work often create a feeling of uncertainty. The artist initiates actions, initiatives, and new processes which try to combine tensions existing in the social expectation system. He is interested how art begins and gaps in which it operates. The artist researches relations between art, art galleries and the public. It is usually presumed that an artist presents their art in a gallery with the public who came there. Does this assumption release us from asking the question, who the recipient really is?

The project presented under the When is a neighbour a stranger? Poses questions about the gentrification processes which occur globally in many cities. This action was triggered by observations made in the home city of Montreal and the Lower Town in Gdansk. The artist’s work uses commercial selling strategies and makes us reflect on the consequences of change processes.

Joshua Schwebel graduated from NSCAD University (2008) and Concordia University (2006). His major exhibitions and projects: Currencies independent project (Havana, Cuba, 2012); [Caché] Artspace (individual exhibition, Peterborough, Canada, 2013); Popularity (interventions in public space, Montreal, Canada, 2012). He received scholarships Research/Creation from Conseil des Arts et des Lettres de Québec, the Laureate of the Résidence Croisées France/Québec, residence supported by Quartier Éphémère/ Fonderie Darling, Montréal/Paris. Since 2014, he has been living and working in Berlin.

Dominika Skutnik,

Sculpture ul. Owsiana 1 – the work outside the building

Although Dominika Skutnik has a painting background, she mainly creates sculptures and installations. She is interested in energy flows in a metaphoric meaning as an exchange between the artist and the public, and sometimes literally as the flow of electricity.

The sculpture which will be located at Owsiana Street will have a form of a new building support designed in a way which resembles truss in medieval cathedrals. The truss supports the wall so it has a practical function. The sculpture created by the artist will have a different, not only functional look. It will not support a church but a residential building. It will be made of brick and it will combine styles, functions, and it will become a bridge between different architecture orders – and simultaneously between different social orders – thus its practicality will lose its clear-cut nature. The objective of the When is a neighbour a stranger? is a question about sense of an art in a non-art-gallery space which is close to people. Ambiguity of the function is a very good metaphor. You don’t necessarily get the “sense” or “objective” of art at first sight, sometimes you may “explain” it to your “neighbours” or other times you may simply try to get used to such different form of thinking. The new support is not useless but on the other hand it may have form which hasn’t been defined by economy or ergonomics. In a sense it will be a non-destructive architectonic disorder, reversed logics, introduction of a new beginning, and a gesture of respect to the devastated space.

Dominika Skutnik graduated Painting & Graphics at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk in 1998.

Justyna Wencel, Marcin Chomicki

1 August – 9 November 2014

Immersion, installation on the bridge / moving image in space / land art

Venue: Bridge between the Lower Town and Olszynka

We thank for the support from the Lambda Group

Immersion, the artistic creation by Justyna Wencel and Marcin Chomicki came into being on a bridge which links two parts of Gdansk: Down Town and Olszynka. The bridge is a very important route for the pedestrians, cyclists, anglers, Nordic walking, dog owners, runners, and family with children going to a nearby playground. The painting land-art intervention has transformed the bridge into a moving picture which has impact on the vast space around the bridge and re-defines the perspective of a spectator.

This work’s feature is characterised by move and change. Depending on light, way and speed with which you move across the bridge, the colour impressions of the bridge user will change. The user who is immersing in the moving picture becomes the main figure of the installation. The bridge is thus, as O. Hansen put it, a background which emphasises a human being. The directions on the bridge have been assigned a different colour range – a warm versus cold one. The colours of the railing shimmer, get opalescent, permeate and mix which is constructing individual visual experience of each individual user.

Marcin Chomicki

Born 1976. He graduated from Painting Faculty at Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (2005) and Assyriology at Oriental Institute of Warsaw University (2000). He started to work at the Academy of Fine Art in 2004, and in 2011 he defended his Ph.D. thesis at University of Arts. His speciality is art in public space, painting, photography, 3D animation. He was showing his works on exhibitions in Poland and in abroad: Biała Gallery, Lublin; Arsenał Gallery, Białystok; Zachęta National Art Gallery, Warsaw; Szara Gallery; Cieszyn; Appendix2 Gallery, Warsaw; Contemporary Art Centre, Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw; Platan Gallery, Budapest; Polish Institute, Budapest; Polish Institute, Rome, Italy. He received three scholarships from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (2006, 2009, 2013) and from Young Poland programme (2011). The author of several public space projects, including the Skarpa Project. Reactivation! POWER CULTURE RECREATION developed together with Justyna Wencel in Warsaw (2011). In the period 2009-2013 a co-creator and co-manager of the 2.0 Gallery at Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. He lives and works in Warsaw.

www.chomicki.art.pl

Justyna Wencel

A visual artist. A graduate of Painting Faculty at Academy of Fine Art in Warsaw, English Faculty at Warsaw University and Teacher’s College. Ph.D. in Fine Art. She is interested in video, installation, objects and art in public space. She works with memory, identity and family archive. She lives in Warsaw and has participated in many individual and collective exhibitions in Poland and abroad and video festivals. She received two scholarships from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. She works in Zmiennicy, an artistic duo with Marcin Chomicki which operates in the area of public space memory and propagates contemporary artistic forms of monument. The author and co-author of many artistic projects in urban space. In the period 2012-2013 she was a curator of the 2.0 Gallery at Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw.

www.wencel.art.pl

4 October 2014, 5:00 pm Art in Public Space Seminar

Venue: Łaźnia Contemporary Art Centre, ul. Jaskółcza 1, Gdansk Down Town

A seminar:

Søren Dahlgaard

Søren Dahlgaard graduated the Slade School of Fine Arts, University College London and the Royal Academy of Architecture, Copenhagen. Soren represented Denmark in many prestigious art reviews: Gwangju, Biennale, South Korea, Tbilisi Triennial, Georgia, Vancouver Biennale, Canada, Singapore Biennale 2008, Museum of Contemporary Art, Trento, Italy, and MoMA P.S.1, New York. In 2013 the artist initiated a project of the first Maldives National Pavilion at the 55th Biennale in Venice. His works were also presented in many important art centres all over the world: CCO – Espaço Cultural Contemporâneo, Brazil; KIASMA Museum of Contemporary Art, Finland; Digital Art Center, Israel, CCA Andratx Contemporary Art Center, Majorca; Center for Contemporary Art, Tel-Aviv, Israel; Palazzo delle Arti Napoli, Italy; Museum of Contemporary Art, Trento, Italy and MoMA P.S.1, New York. The works of Søren Dahlgaard are in the tradition of land art and conceptual art. The artist researches borders of art disciplines and questions its fundamental paradigms. In his creative search he focuses on visual language which is an act of communication with the public. His main objective is to develop a new way of experiencing art.

Carmen Einfinger

The British-American artist lives in New York. She is a painter in her background but since the very beginning she has been using a wide variety of materials and objects to create her paintings. Recently she made a series of works (paintings, sculptures and performance) in an urban space of the New York City, Beijing, Taiwan and Italy, involving local communities in the act of creation. Einfinger’s works take ampleness of a variety of cultures and styles and show her personal vision and realise a wide range of her visual and conceptual ideas. Einfinger is guided by her artistic intuition and she has developed her new unique style which is her own contribution to our times’ art and culture. Her strongest inspiration came from her travels in Europe and Asia which convinced her to break conventions in making art. She uses the contemplative method, meditates and is very optimistic. She creates fantastic and exotic visions even when she works in ordinary, banal spaces. She won first award in the third edition of the GZMG Competition in 2009.

http://carmeneinfinger.com

Tania Ruiz Gutiérrez

Tania Ruiz Gutiérrez is a French-Columbian-Chilean artist. She was born in Chile, brought-up in Columbia where she completed her studies within film and television. In 2004, she defended her Ph.D. dissertation within visual arts in Sorbonne. She now lives and works in Paris.

The artist makes videos and public space is in the center of her interests. In 2009 she won a competition for GardeTemps, a light and video based sculpture for the Olympic Games Art Programme in Public Space in Vancouver. 2006-2010 she was producing the Somewhere else video for the Malmö Citytunneln Central Station. To deliver the job she intensively travelled and recorded material for installation. The work came to existence in the underground railway platform and its purpose has been to keep passengers amused when they are waiting for a train. Her work was mentioned in 2012 in the European Prize for Urban Public Space.

Let’s do it together(Kuba Budzyński, Monika Waraxa, Bartek Bartosiński)

Let’s do it together was an interactive campaign which was publicly available, based on co-operation and participation, with open and dynamic form. The Internet tool proposed by the artists placed the art recipient in the place of a creator, while the artist received an insight to subjective opinions on art. For specialists, it might have been an uncomfortable mirror which showed how their artistic endeavours have been perceived. In Let's Do It Together (2011–2014) all the participants have been co-creators. Their input concerned: what is culture, who is the recipient, who is an artist, presented in multimedia projections and installations during 8 project editions in Poland and UK made content of the project. Let’s do it together was an attempt to re-define the notions of key importance for art: a creator, a recipient and object of art.

Christine Buhl Andersen is a KØS Manager and a President of the Danish Museums Association.

KØS is a Danish museum of art in public space. The museum was established in 1977 and it is located on a Nørregade promenade in the centre of charming Køge.

It is the only Danish museum which is devoted to art in public space – common urban spaces, hospitals, castles, churches and other public venues.

The museum has a collection of 7000 drawings, models and other initial unique works of art. The exhibition programme covers art in public space and analysis different processes and problems connected with this type of art. Sketches, drawings and models are often completed by photographs, video materials and letters which reflect the relations between artists and architects, city planners and other stakeholders. The exhibitions are starting point for the discussions which often develop when art enters into public space, discussions which are unavoidable.

Elena Forin

An Italian curator, she is interested in the recent artistic undertakings – video, installations, performances, participation, site-specific and art socially engaged and in their specific historical context dating back to 1960-ties and 1970-ties. In the period of 2009 and 2011, she was a curator of a variety of many exhibitions in MACRO (Contemporary Art Museum in Rome): Urs Lüthi Just Another Story About Leaving (together with L.M. Barbero), Jacob Hashimoto Silence Still Governs Our Consciousness, Jamie Shovlin Hiker Meat, Sarah Braman Lay me down, Esther Stocker Destino comune, and Riccardo De Marchi Fori Romani (together with L.M. Barbero). Since 2011 she has been a member of LaRete Art Project. A curator of Click or Clash? Strategies of collaboration. Stage 2 (Marco Giovani, Niklas Goldbach, Yves Netzhammer; Galleria Bianconi, Milan) with Julią Draganovic, Suara Welitoff (introduction: Manuel de Santaren, Upside Down, Milan), Cheryl Pope & Carlo Zauli. Mind the Gap?! (Galleria Bianconi, Milan), Silvano Tessarollo Se il grano non muore (together with J. Draganovic, Fondazione Vignato, Vicenza), Curators' Choice (together with Julia Draganovic), Art Miami, Miami, FL.

Claudia Löffelholz

Born in Germany, an independent curator and journalist. Having completed Roman and German Philology university studies, she started to work as a culture manager at the Kulturbüro LaRete in Weimar where she has organised several European exhibition projects (überMENSCHEN, EUROPA VIDEO ARTE, RADAR, Coniugazioni). Her research studies focus on video art and new strategic strategies, specifically on participation projects and art in public space. In 2004 she founded together with Julia Draganovic a collective of LaRete Art Project. She works as a curator and production manager for the International Award for Participatory Art promoted by the Legislative Assembly of the Region Emilia-Romagna in Italy. She has been a curator for exhibitions like: Charlotte Ginsborg Trapped in the Mirror, SPAC, Buttrio; VIRES. Exercises on power–Exercises of Choice (together with Julia Draganovic), a series of performances Marii José Arjona in the historic city centre and Anatomico of Archiginnasio, Bologna; Tea Mäkipää Domesticated Nature, z2o, Rome, The Eye of the Collector (together with Julia Draganovic), Villa delle Rose, Bologna; Me, you, we and the others (together with Julia Draganovic), Fotografia Europea, Reggio Emilia; Girls or Boys? Who cares?! (together with Julia Draganovic), Art Miami.

Ūla Tornau

Ūla Tornau is an exhibition curator and researcher based in Vilnius. She has worked as an exhibition curator at the Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius and was one of the founders of few independent artist initiatives, the most recent being an artist run project space Malonioji 6 in Vilnius. In 2012 together with Asta Vaičiulytė she launched an ongoing curatorial project Ritual Room that by now has happened in formats of a curated group residency, a publication and an exhibition. She has worked on different projects focusing on historical and current urban change including a series of events and a collection of articles Urban Change in Eastern and Central Europe: Social, Cultural and Architectural Transformations, the X Baltic Triennial of International Art Urban Stories and an international lecture series on anthropology of space. In 2010 she was an assistant commissioner of the Lithuanian Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale of International Art. Currently Ūla Tornau is writing her PhD thesis at Vilnius Academy of Arts on official and everyday space discourses in post-war Vilnius.

BIP

Municipal Institution of Culture