PIOTR SIKORA CV / PORTFOLIO
Piotr Sikora is a critic and curator of contemporary art whose practice is rooted in the analysis of grand narratives, stereotypes, prejudices, and superstitions connected to regional specificities. He draws inspiration from the pop culture and embarrassment, sauna, fried cheese, mycology, and camp. Not afraid to use exaggeration, irony, insinuation, and provocation, he challenges established patterns to provoke thought.
His theoretical approach is grounded in cultural studies and new art history, with a special focus on horizontal and regional art histories. In his curatorial practice, he concentrates on methods of deconstruction that dismantle large stories, allowing for the creation of unexpected and rebellious exhibitions.
Additionally, he is deeply interested in the phenomenon of cultural mobility—artists' residency programs. For the past seven years, he has worked as a host and residency curator at MeetFactory, which gives him space to reflect on what it means to manage programs in times of climate change and how to make them more sustainable and open to diverse groups of artists and art professionals.
Beyond that, he co-curates the art-themed reality show GASTROFAZA, raises two sons, and obsessively cycles.
Curriculum Vitae
+420777524573
piotr.sikora@aauni.edu
Higher Education:
I’m a Ph D candidate at the Doctoral School of Pedagogical University in Krakow
MA – Art History Institute, Faculty of History/ Jagiellonian University in Krakow 2014
Language Skills:
English (fluent), Polish (mother tongue), Italian (fluent), Czech (fluent), and Spanish (basic).
Scholarships and residences:
Residency at Les Orangeries of Bierbais, Aug 2023
Constructing Utopias Summer School, mg+msum, Ljubljana, Aug.
2018
Residency at Ark Galerie, Yogyakarta, Nov. Dec. 2017
Residency at Studio Das Weisse Haus, Vienna 2016
Scholarship of Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage 2015
Member of Publishing Board at Modern Gallery in Hradec Králové
Board Member of the Fine Art Academy in Katowice
Jury member of The Oskár Čepan Award
Curatorial Experience:
Náplavky Riverfronts Curator / TCP / 2024-25
Chief Curatorial Adviser/ CYCLE-UP CE Project / 2023-27
Artistic Director/ Other Edges of The World CE Project / 2022-24
Program Curator / A-iR Program / MeetFactory / 2017-24
Co-curator / Biennale Matter of Art in Prague / 2021-22
Co-curator / Narracje Festival in Gdańsk / 2021
Curator / Censorship Strikes Back Conference / 2020
Director/The New Dictionary of Old Ideas CE Project / 2018-20
Program Curator / Malopolska Garden of Art / 2012-14
Curator / Zbiornik Kultury /2012-2013
Curator / ShowOFF at Photomonth in Krakow / 2012 - 16
Project curator / Art Boom Festival / 2010 – 16
Lecturer at Anglo-American University in Prague 2016-24
Selected lectures and presentations:
High Art / Seminar of Accidental Knowledge / FAMU Praha, 2024
Kill Memory Kill Pain - lecture / Elbe Dock festival at Ústí nad Labem, 2021
How to Squat Like a Real Artists / School of the Arts Columbia University, New York 2018
INTERMARIUM / presentation at The Deep Flows of the Running Sea conference in Museum of Art Olomouc, 2016
Selected Exhibition Projects:
April 2025 Dark. Deep. Green, UFO gallery, Krakow PL
June 2024 Broken Femur, Pragovka, Prague CZ
Feb 2024 Dungeon Keepers Earlier Than Primordial Middleages, MeetFactory, Prague CZ
Nov 2023 The Sea of Cheese, Trafostacja Sztuki, Szczecin PL
Sep 2023 Other Edges, MeetFactory, Prague CZ
Feb - June 2023 Untitleis, Kisterem, Budapest HU and Half-Life, Wannsee DE
Feb 2022 IPS TYPOGRAPHUS, Berlinskej Model, Prague CZ
Dec 2021 Hussites at The Baltic Sea, Rondo Sztuki, Katowice PL
Sep 2021 EYE/EAR, GAMPA, Pardubice CZ
Aug 2020 Total Failure Spectacular Collapse, Pragovka, Prague CZ
Feb 2020 The New Dictionary of Old Ideas, MeetFactory, Prague CZ
June 2019 Avant Garde Decentralized symposium, Warszawa Biennale, PL
Feb 2019 An Out of This World Event III , Karlin Studios, Prague, CZ
Sep 2018 Slav Squatting and Its Discontents, MeetFactory, Prague, CZ
March 2018 Interpreter’s Booth, Chimera-Project, Budapest, Hungary, H
Jan 2018 Goodbye AiWeiWei, INI Project, Prague, CZ
Dec 2017 Swag and Threat, TRAFO Art Center, Szczecin, PL
Nov 2017 The Devils of Unreason, Koal Gallery, Berlin, D
Oct 2017 Eight Women, in cooperation with Plato Ostrava, Ostrava, CZ
Feb 2016 Intermarium, Futura, Prague/Chimera-Project, Budapest / PlusMinusNula, Žilina/BWA Sokół, Nowy Sącz
Selected curatorial projects 2015-2025
Dark. Deep. Green
By Eva Maceková
11.04 - 24.05.25
The exhibition of works by Eva Maceková, an artist from Slovakia who has lived and worked in Prague for many years, opens the gates to the reality of tomorrow. In her fantastical, brooding paintings – like legends torn from the depths of the Bohemian Forest – we discover a world of ambiguous coexistence between humans and plants. The creatures that inhabit it – the Auxes – create, communicate, vegetate, and reproduce, reluctantly allowing the curious eye of the viewer to enter their habitat. The title of the exhibition evokes a word beginning with ‘e’ – which, out of sheer contrariness, I will refrain from uttering just yet.
The world hollowed out of soft painterly matter into which Eva invites us is the embodiment of a vision of the future: one of radical coexistence between the animate and the so-called inanimate realms of nature In it, we see traces of deep ecology, in which the centre of gravity shifts away from humans towards other beings, as we try – if only for a moment – to adopt their perspective and imagine what it would mean to perceive the world outside an anthropocentric frame. I know, I know – it is a doomed attempt. Even more pessimistic about human nature is the dark ecology, haunted by the spectre of ‘no future,’ which rejects any possibility of a healthy coexistence between us and others. The scenes in Maceková’s paintings do not make it entirely clear who the Auxes are – or whether they are closer to humans or some giant Venus flytrap that eats humans for breakfast As you look at them – the Auxes, not the flytraps – I suggest you put aside the gaze of the white man on safari and, for a moment, enter the mind of Doctor Eggman, who, at the end of the first Sonic the Hedgehog film, crash-lands on a planet populated entirely by giant poisonous mushrooms.
Broken Femur
by Šárka Koudelová and Gideon Horváth
Pragovka Gallery
9 07 - 29 08 24
The exhibition of Šárka Koudelová and Gideon Horváth is based on an almost mythical statement by anthropologist Margaret Mead. When she was asked by students what she considered the first sign of civilization, she allegedly replied that the healing of a broken human femur. In nature, it's usually true that if you break your leg, you die. You can't run from danger, you're unable to get to a source of water or hunt for food. Koudelová and Horváth understand the theme of the exhibition as a call for a change in social dogmas. They hear in it a call to break the femur of this society and to heal it together.
Dungeon Keepers: Earlier than Primordial Middle Ages
by Botond Keresztesi and Stach Szumski Co-curator with Ján Gajdušek
MeetFactory
15 02 - 14 04 24
Every text accompanying an exhibition makes one believe to be the key to unlock deeper understanding of art. I propose a keyhole instead It allows us to look at the works without being seen It adds some meanings but doesn’t try to explain what is it all about. In fact, the majestic corpus of painting created by Stach and Botond is quite self‐explanatory ‐ layers and sediments of visual inspirations coming from human and non‐human activities are merged in an immersive space Those are the dungeons where eloquent erosion and eclectic morphology come together to re‐evaluate and redefine what is macabre, appealing, organic, bizarre and horrifying. On top of those terms, there is only entropy ‐ the slow yet inevitable decline of matter. When I peep at their works, categories such as action, space, and time feel inadequate and short.
The Sea of Cheese
Co-curator with Tomek Pawłowski-Jarmołajew, Trafostacja Sztuki Szczecin
30 11 23 - 28 02 2024
artists:
Kateryna Aliinyk, Adrian Altman, Karolina Gołębiowska, Hubert Gromny, Gideon Horvath, Jakub Jansa, Barbora Kleinhamplová, Eva Koťátková, Marie Lukačova, Angelina Mass, Jan Matýsek, Zsolt Miklósvölgyi & Dominika Trapp, Ola Nenko, Ala Savashevich, Anastasia Sosunova, Dominika Olszowy, Rafał Żarski
co-ordinators:
Dominika Głowala i Andrzej Witczak (TRAFO)
Zuzana Belasová i Sasa Vitov (MeetFactory) visual identification:
Kiju Klejzik
What if the way through the stomach is not to the heart, but to fantasy?
Could a specific amount of fried gouda affect our dreams?
The exhibition offers ingredients, recipes and diets that can, literally and symbolically, stimulate alternative scenarios and immersion in dream visions. Products and objects such as celery, teeth, broth, monster, blood or wax suddenly take on new meanings, as in the Egyptian Dream Book, introducing us to a surreal atmosphere in which the dreamt and digested matter mix and mingle
Other Edges of The World
Co-curator with Flóra Gadó & Lucia Kvočáková
MeetFactory
Prague
15 09-10 11 2023
artists: Kateryna Aliinyk, Ghazaleh Avarzamani, Eva Ďurovec, Darja Lukjanenko, Mina Nasr, Jura Shust
architecture: Vojtěch Novák accompanying programs curator: Jiří Žák
The exhibition you are about to enter explores the potential of margins, edges, and borders in various contexts and meanings. How can peripheries communicate without relying on the center? What unknown lies beyond the edge? Is there a periphery to every periphery?
By emphasizing the in-betweenness and constant transition, we are not searching for answers on how to live in this time of multiple crises, rather we are suggesting ways to embrace this uncertainty and examine its potential Moving beyond center-periphery dichotomy, entering the ever-changing field,we propose to focus on exile and displacement both on a tangible and imaginative level.
by Gábor Kristóf
Curator
Kisterem Gallery
Budapest
14 02 2023 - 31 3 2023
Golf is never about golf, it’s always about something else
—Mark Twain
[a voice from the past] So what was golf really about? esoterics? violence? kinky stuff? after all, we are running around like blue-ass flies with one aim: to complete the hole. What is it about? getting a title? domesticating nature? naturalizing ourselves by taking these never-ending walks through the bunkers and fairways and greens Ultimately a golf course is nothing but an oasis where we all are going to hide one day, the day when the end of the world as we know it will reach us.
In his second solo exhibition at Kisterem, Gábor Kristóf presents his latest series. The material of Untitleist is the result of years of experimentation, with elements that have now expanded in size Kristóf started working with powder coating in 2015 and has since then explored the application of this industrial technique, which produces surfaces similar to enamel paint, and the related possibilities of expanding the RAL colour range through several series In 2020, he produced his first works inspired by the exclusive world of golf, of which he presented a larger selection at his solo exhibition Picnic on the Driving Range in Bánská Štiavnica. This time, Kisterem will present works inspired by the specific terminology of the sport, with compositions created by layering layers of powder paint that evoke the golf phenomenon through typographic experiments, abstracting it into textures
Biennale Matter of Art 2022
Co-Curator with Rado Ištok, Renan Laru-an, tranzit.cz
Prague City Gallery
Former laundry at the Faculty Hospital
21st of July - 23rd of October 2022
Participating artists & authors
Hamja Ahsan (UK), Gwendolyn Albert (US/Czech Republic), APART (Slovakia), Michal BarOr (Israel), Anca Benera & Arnold Estefan (Romania), Hera Büyüktaşcıyan (Turkey), Larisa Crunțeanu (Romania), Nolan Oswald Dennis (South Africa), Patricia Domínguez (Chile), Mandy El-Sayegh with Alice Walter (UK), Brenda Fajardo (Philippines), Florin Flueras (Romania), Ramon Guillermo (Philippines), Filip Herza (Czech Republic), Jana Horváthová (Czech Republic), Robin Hartanto (Indonesia), i pack* [Robert Gabris (Austria), Luboš Kotlár (Slovakia) & Cat Jugravu (Germany)], Brigitta Isabella (Indonesia), Hanni Kamaly (Norway/Sweden), Barbora Kleinhamplová (Czech Republic), Alina Kleytman (Ukraine) & Marie Lukáčová (Czech Republic), Jacques de Koning (Netherlands), Jana Krejcarová-Černá (Czech Republic), Tarek Lakhrissi (France), Renz Lee (†) (Philippines), Dorota Jagoda Michalska (Poland), Candice Lin (US), Fathia Mohidin & Adele Marcia Kosman (Sweden), Mara Oláh (†) (Hungary), Linh Valerie Pham (Vietnam) with Rene O. Villanueva’s characters, Alina Popa (†) with Florin Flueras (Romania), Pižmo (Czech Republic), Kolektiv Prádelna / The Laundry Collective (Czech Republic), Ábel Ravasz (Slovakia), Anna Remešová (Czech Republic), Vincent Rumahloine (Indonesia), Charlotte Salomon (†) (Germany), Rudolf Samohejl (Czech Republic), Františka Schormová (Czech Republic), Sina Seifee (Germany/Iran), Jana Shostak (Poland), Sráč Sam (Czech Republic), Ceija Stojka (†) (Austria), Bára Šimková (Czech Republic), Olúfẹmi O. Táíwò (US), Shūji Terayama (†) with Tetsuya Chiba and Ashita no Joe artifacts (Japan), Marie Tučková (Czech Republic), Rene O. Villanueva (†) with Jo Atienza (Philippines), Lenka Vítková (Czech Republic), Zai Xu (Czech Republic)
What is life imagined in violence? In other words, how can we let the soft be soft? The second edition of the biennale Matter of Art invites the public to explore diverse artistic positions that reiterate these intertwined questions in various affective registers, media, and outputs The choir of voices that is at times consonant and at times dissonant seeks know-how for undermining the bold narratives that revolve around heroic, autonomous figures who exert extraordinary power to overcome obstacles. Where does the saying about the events which make us stronger unless they kill us come from, and what is the actual meaning of the word “stronger” anyway? In contrast to this proverb, the art presented in the exhibition weaves together different stories of essentially vulnerable bodies and deficient systems dependent on and inseparable from other bodies, the environment, and infrastructures.
IPS TYPOGRAPHUS
by Stach Szumski
Curator
Berlinskej Model
Prague
25 2 2022 – 10 3 2022
The story you are about to read – or perhaps rather be swallowed by – is written on the walls of the gallery space. The intervention was conducted by Stachu in collaboration with legions of bugs as a part of a long-lasting psychedelic therapy session. This interspecies cooperation aimed to visualize the fears and anxieties that stay in the way of a friendly coexistence of humans and bugs Even though it may now appear as a creepy bark beetle bone chapel, the future will acknowledge it as something like a cave painting from the turbulent dusk of the Holocene, when Gregor S. was just a literature protagonist and the human-bug era was about to take off
For most of his life, Stachu has lived in the Giant Mountains (believe me or not, this is the English translation for Krkonoše). Even though he is much less present in his family home these days, in the long summer months he enjoys his escapades into the wild Walking from Bogatynia to Broumov and back and exploring the territories of the mountains, artificially divided by the state border. The border is understood as a meeting point of what we consider nature or natural and culture or artificial remains a constant element in Stachu’s work. The ornament-like forms appear on wooden bones eaten by the bark beetle The aeographic gradients emerged from the surface of an abandoned building as if graffiti was some kind of lichen, slowly covering every inch of concrete. Thick branches in the shape of skeleton hands, reaching out for you as in some kind of twisted Disney cartoon. And all the silhouettes resemble stalactites, rocky mushrooms, cranks in the sandstones, gargoyles, and hazy devil heads All of a sudden you realize that the origin of this murky gothic style that dominates Stachu’s work is derived directly from the forest – the darker, more human-resilient side of the Giant Mountains
Hussites at The Baltic Sea
Curator
Rondo Sztuki
Katowice
18.12.2021-10.02.2022
Artists: Adrian Altman, Veronika Čechmánková, Barbora Kleinhamplová, Eliška Konečná, Kateřina Konvalinová, Marie Lukáčová, Jan Matýsek, Michael Nosek, Kateřina Olivová, Lucia Sceranková, Linda Wrong
The exhibition presents ten artistic approaches from the Czech art scene. For many of them (but not all) the common denominator became the motif of water; as fluid and difficult to grasp as possible It recurs in individual works, becoming the background of the action, personifying the healing process or, on the contrary, being a source of hallucinogenic sensations Its excess - rising sea and ocean levels - and scarcity at the same time, make it not so much a threat of futuristic catastrophes as a metaphor of transformation
Poland's Czechophilia? Rather Turów’s depression.
A state from sea to sea or preferably a state covered by the sea
We want a sea instead of Poland! (and the beach under the Sněžka)
Exoticism with a small e spelled, inscribed in our Central European melting pot
A cumbersome wink from over a beer more eloquent than many a ratified agreement
Poles again in Prague Hussites on the Baltic
NARRACJE #12
Co-curator
Gdańsk
21.10-22.10.2021
Artists:
Mark Fridvalszki (HU), Barbora Kleinhamplová (CZ), Kateřina Konvaliová (CZ), Magda Lazar (PL) & Michalina Bigaj (PL), Cecylia Malik (PL), Kateřina Olivová (CZ), Jan Matýsek (CZ), The Melancholy of Marissa Cooper: Zuzanna Žabková & Nik Timkova (SK), Centrum Centrum: Łukasz Jastrubczak & Małgorzata Mazur (PL), Tatuator Maciej (PL), Potencja: Karolina Jabłońska, Tomasz Kręcicki, Cyryl Polaczek (PL), Egill Sæbjörnsson (ISL), Lucia Sceranková (SK), Julita Wójcik (PL), Linda Wrong (CZ)
The 12th edition of NARRACJE takes you on a journey to the year 2080, when a substantial part of Gdańsk will be submerged under the Baltic Sea. However, the one-metre sea level rise will not cause an environmental disaster predicted in bleak scenarios from the early 21st century. Instead of an accelerationist vision of a concrete desert, the year 2080 will instead unfold in a stable ecosystem, in which human interference with nature brings about surprising outcomes. In our concept of the festival, we propose urban projects based on a speculation that synthesizes the work of an international team of artists All activities are bound together by a vision of the future as a polyphony of concepts and voices standing in opposition to fatalistic predictions. Wrzeszcz and other parts of Gdańsk will at one point serve as one of many examples of the dramatic consequences of humanity’s impact on our planet. While we are aware of the gravity of our situation, we do not believe in gloomy scenarios of the Anthropocene We want to build an event whose narrative stretches far into the future, yet offers a visionary image of what’s to come, and, by way of a remedy, initiates a collaboration between residents, artists and activists.
FOOD STUDIO - in frame of MeetFactory Artists In Residence Programe Curator
The studio is running continuously from May 2020 hosting the following artists: Christina Dietz (US), Juliane Foronda (CA), Zsolt Miklósvölgyi and Dominika Trapp (HU), Adelina Cimochowicz (PL), Adrian Altman (CZ), Catherine Murray (IR), Maria Toboła (PL), Denisa Langrová & Marie Lukáčová & Alex Sihelsk (CZ), Tomek Pawłowski-Jarmołajew (PL)
Stony Tellers (CZ)
From a seasonal trend in exhibition-making to yet another sub-medium in contemporary art, food is becoming an increasingly important element of today’s art practice. Over the course of the preceding decade, one can follow the appropriation of foodstuffs by a broad spectrum of artists developing community-based and socially engaged projects. It can be seen as another path to recognising identity politics or dealing with post-colonial topics Since our residency programme is mainly oriented towards building relationships between the Prague art scene (art audiences and residents), we would like to use a food-oriented art practice as a platform for connection and mutual understanding Let’s have a bite!
Picnic at The Flame Curator
Třinec City Gallery
10 09 - 15 10 2020
Artists: Adrian Altman, Stan Barański, Adelina Cimochowicz, Yeva Kupchenko, Kasper Lecnim, Irmina Rusicka
Picnic! The absolute beauty of a meal in the midst of natural surroundings! The unforgettable charm of a gentle organic fusion of culture and nature sealed by a festive lunch! The concept of The Piknik u Plamene is very homely – a few artists coming together to celebrate a meal in different parts of Třinec town Scouting the boundaries between what is industrial and cultural, natural and urban, in the narratives involving the recent history of the city seen from foreign perspective.
One can say it is quite banal, everydayish and sybaritic. It definitely isn’t an object of desire, it can’t be hung over the couch and we had no intention in making it look good The art we propose is simply an image of life that is being highlighted and gains visibility After all, the fundamental function of institutions such as Knihovna is adding visibility to things and matters we tend to skip and forget in everyday rush. It is going to be a pity not to have a place to remind the citizens of Trinec about that.
The New Dictionary of Old Ideas
Co-curator
MeetFactory, Prague
20 02 - 27 03 2020
Artists:
Erick Beltrán, Verónica Lahitte, Elena Lavellés, Irmina Rusicka, Adéla Součková, Katharina Stadler, Sandro Sulaberidze, Nino Zirakashvili, Jiří Žák
Central Europe can also be seen as an idea, a metaphor of connection between the presumed West and East. However, this contact should not be understood in absolute terms, but relative to the specificities of each context. Historical and global processes, the existing threads between locations and ideas, must also be considered, since they contribute greatly to the shaping of opinions and beliefs tied to this concept.
How, then is it possible to define “central” when aspects beyond geographical location intertwine, and when boundaries and definitions are not seen as fixed entities, but rather in flux? In search of this, the exhibition addresses issues that are critical in many countries of Europe and beyond, such as oppression, the distribution of power and resources, the dismissal of perspective, and historical reenactment.
The New Dictionary of Old Ideas - research program director
The New Dictionary of Old Ideas is a network of independent cultural institutions within Central and Eastern Europe The platform we aim to create comes along with the process of cultural exchange and intense research of our common identity. Through political issues, visual culture, art theory, and the history of the region, we wish to explore Central Europe as an intriguing phenomenon Coming from the experience of cultural mobility, we have established a residency project as a helping tool in furthering research that goes hand in hand with a set of theoretical terms known as The New Dictionary of Old Ideas
Partner Institutions 2018/19
HIT Gallery, Visual Culture Research Centre, FKSE Studio of Young Artists Association, Trafostacja Sztuki, tranzit at, ODD
Partner Institutions 2019/20
Hablarenarte / CentroCentro, Trafostacja Sztuki, Silk Museum
Participants 2018/19
Andrej Žabkay, Kata Mach, Serhiy Klymko, Oleksiy Radynski, David Chichkan, Oleksander Pavlov, Klára Rudas, Flora Gado, Bence Pálinkás, Miklós Zsámboki, Eszter Őze, Monika Szpener, Stanisław Ruksza, Andrzej Wasilewski, Mikołaj Iwański, Georg Schöllhammer, Hedwig Saxenhuber, Johannes Porsch, Nita Mocanu, Cristina Bogdan, Marius Stoica, Vasile Leac
Participants 2019/20
Erick Beltrán (MX / ES), Verónica Lahitte (AR / ES), Data Chigholashvili (GE), Alba Martinez Folgado (ES), Elena Lavellés (ES), Sandro Sulaberidze (GE), Katherina Stadler (AT/GE), Nino Zirakashvili (GE) Jiří Žák (CZ), Adéla Součková (CZ), Irmina Rusicka (PL)
SYMPOSIUM 27/8th of November 2018
Participants: Oleksiy Radynski, Klára Rudas, Oleksander Pavlov, Bence Pálinkás, Cristina Bogdan, Marius Stoica, Andrej Žabkay, Serhiy Klymko, Eszter Őze, Flora Gado, Barna Orsolya, Anastasya Teor
Speakers: Milena Bartlová, Boris Buden, Keti Chukhrov, Katarzyna Murawska-Muthesius, Jan Sowa
SLAV SQUATTING AND ITS DISCONTENTS
Curator
MeetFactory, Prague
21st of Sep - 4th of Nov 2018
artists: Lenka Balounová (CZ), Norbert Delman(PL), Alina Gutkina (RU), Max Lysáček(CZ), Oleg Kulik(RU), Irenka Kalicka (PL), Olexandr Pavlov (UA), Gregor Rozanski (in cooperation with Mateusz Klazula) (PL)
Slav Squatting moved out of the post-Soviet suburbs and is now taking over the internet. It’s also taking over our minds through its simple yet catchy form, combining Buddhist meditation with thug life street style For those of you who don’t know what Slav squatting is – snap! – I only have one piece of advice: ask Boris As for the rest of you – oh, my Slav brothers! Once again we have an opportunity to feel proud of our Eastern European origins, and you can be sure we will celebrate with this exceptional exhibition
The project was inspired not only by post-Soviet street culture, but also by the Sigmund Freud’s book called Civilization and Its Discontents “At present, this trend is somewhat a social status, perhaps at a first glance a simple pose that is loaded with many meanings and thoughts”, a curator
Piotr Sikora explains. “It’s a powerful visual language that was originally part of a low culture to become a leitmotif, a sign of era or an internet memo ”
SWAG & THREAT
Co-curator
Trafostacja Sztuki in Szczecin 7th of December - 28th of January
artists: EWA AXELRAD, TOMEK BARAN, RAHIM BLAK, KAROLINA BREGUŁA, MATEUSZ CHORÓBSKI, POLA DWURNIK, MARCIN DUDEK, ROMAN DZIADKIEWICZ*, JACEK KOŁODZIEJSKI, MIKOŁAJ MOSKAL, KAROL KOMOROWSKI, OLGA KOWALSKA, PAWEŁ KOWZAN, DOMINIKA OLSZOWY, FRANEK ORŁOWSKI, TOMEK PAWŁOWSKI, CEZARY PONIATOWSKI,KAROL RADZISZEWSKI, DOMINIK RITSZEL, DANIEL RYCHARSKI, KONRAD SMOLEŃSKI, MACIEJ STĘPIŃSKI, STACH SZUMSKI
Swag & Threat is based around the topic of antagonism in the contemporary artistic life in Poland. The exhibition has been inspired by the phenomena of beef and diss present in the hip-hop culture. The first term represents an argument between two rappers, while the other one is used to describe an element of such argument – the open insulting of the opponent through pointing out his artistic (and other) shortcomings. Hip-hop is one of the areas of culture in which conflict is shown openly and without social inhibitions, demonstrating the energies characteristic of the avant-garde times, but swept under the rug in the sphere of visual arts nowadays Conflict, meanwhile, is an integral part of the functioning of any environment – the building of its internal hierarchies, setting and abolishing of trends, promoting the careers of selected artists and forgetting about the other ones.
INTERMARIUM
Co-curator
project of four exhibitions in Futura Project Prague (CZ), Chimera Project Budapest (HU), Plusminusnulla Zilina (SK), BWA Sokol Nowy Sacz (PL)
26th of January 2015 -
artists: Azorro (Oskar Dawicki, Igor Krenz, Wojciech Niedzielko, Łukasz Skąpski) / Chto Delat / Irwin(Dusan Mandic, Miran Moha, Andrej Savski, Roman Uranjek, Borut Vogelnik) / Zbigniew Libera / Svätopluk Mikyta / Little Warsaw (Andras Galik,Balint Havas) / Pavla Malinová / Rafani (David Korinek, Jiri Franta, Marek Meduna, Ludek Rathousky, Zuzana Blochova)
“Intermarium” is an exhibition addressing phantasms and images employed by Central European countries when they wish to define their position towards Western Europe and other countries of the region. The project attempts to sketch the specificity of each of the former Eastern block countries through the prism of their image of themselves, their role and position towards other European states, as well as their aspirations, contradictions, and common interests. We also trace the changes of the perception of the Central-Eastern European community across several generations of artists.
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING A (MOVING) IMAGE
Assistant curator
National Gallery Prague / February – March 2015
Artists: Josef Dabernig, Marianna Caló and Francisco
Queimadela, Daniel Pitín, Roman Štětina, Aurélien
Froment, Liam Gillick, Rachel Rose, Mieke Bal & Michelle Williams Gamaker
The National Gallery is going to open in Trade Fair Palace a new long-term project of the Moving Image Department with inaugurating show The Importance of Being in a (Moving) Image. The title refers to the lecture of Dutch art theorist, video artist and Professor Emeritus of Literary Theory at the University of Amsterdam Mieke Bal that is concentrated on reflection of semiotics and ontology of the image. Opening of a new gallery space in Trade Fair Palace, based primarily on video and film, is a reaction to long lasting absence of these media in collections of modern and contemporary art of the National Gallery in Prague. The Moving Image Department is situated in a previously not used extraordinary space on the ground floor of Trade Fair Palace, redone for this purpose by the architectural concept of Austrian artist Josef Dabernig. Visual identity of the department was created by renowned British artist Liam Gillick whose video work and wall installation would be also present.
