Joanna Rajkowska

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Greetings from Jerusalem Street - the palm tree by Joanna Rajkowska
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Greetings from Jerusalem Street - the palm tree by Joanna Rajkowska

Joanna Rajkowska was born in 1968, in Bydgoszcz, Poland. Rajkowska is considered one of the most interesting artists that came to the Polish artistic scene in the 1990s. Probably her most famous work is a 15 meter high (~50 feet) palm tree installed in Warsaw's Aleje Jerozolimskie, called Greetings from Jerusalem Avenue. The exhibition was organised by the Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland (December 13th, 2002 - December 13th, 2003). The palm tree became a permanent element of Warsaw's scenery, and so was not removed after the end of the official exhibition, but was taken under patronage of the President of Warsaw and still stands in the centre of the city.

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[edit] Biography

Rajkowska studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, Poland (1988-1993), and art history at Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland (1988-1993. She also completed the Studio Semester Program at the State University of New York, USA (1994-1995)[1].

[edit] Work

Rajkowska describes the sense of her activity as building relationships with other people. She often only sets up the context of a meeting, allowing it to be an open experience. She usually engages a number of people as participants, and she also uses herself in her work. For example, in Satisfaction Guaranteed, her body was being symbolically consumed by other people[2].

[edit] Greetings from Jerusalem Avenue

Greetings from Jerusalem Avenue - the 15 meter (50 foot) high palm tree installed in the centre of Warsaw - is an idea created by Rajkowska after her trip with Artur Żmijewski to Israel in Spring 2001. It is an attempt to transfer the scenery of Israel to Warsaw, to Aleje Jerozolimskie - a street whose name and history, in return, sends an observer back to Israel. In another way, the palm tree refers to a popular idiomatic expression in the Polish language that indicates something unthinkable, outside common understanding, escaping the usual way of reasoning, simply - something idiotic. On the other hand, through the very presence of the palm tree in the middle of Warsaw's centre, it may signify that the commonly accepted way of reasoning does not fit the real world [3].

[edit] Selected exhibitions

  • 2005 Twenty-Two Tasks, Program Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
  • 2004 Only Love, (public project), Warsaw, Poland
  • 2003 Formal Promise. Artist For Rent, Mullerdechiara Gallery, Berlin, Germany
  • 2002 Greetings from Jerusalem Avenue, (public project), Warsaw, Poland
  • 2002 My Great-Grandmother Rosa Stern, (Photofestival), Skulpturen Hus, Stockholm, Sweden
  • 2001 Stockholm International Art Fair, Stockholm, Sweden
  • 2000 The Diary of Dreams, XX1 Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
  • 2000 Satisfaction Guaranteed, Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Poland
  • 2000 Satisfaction Guaranteed, AMS - Outdoor Gallery, 400 billboards all over Poland
  • 1999 On Saturday I Eat Sweets and I Masturbate, Open Gallery, Kraków, Poland
  • 1999 Things I Do In the Evenings, Manhattan Gallery, Łódź, Poland
  • 1998 Menu of Desires, Bunkier Sztuki Gallery, Kraków, Poland
  • 1998 The Love of a Man Named Dog, Contemporary Art Gallery Zachęta, Warsaw, Poland
  • 1997 Lobster Lovers, Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center, Buffalo, New York, USA
  • 1996 Trio for Skin, Voice and the Madman, Bucklein Theatre, Kraków, Poland
  • 1996 Water-Tower. Headache, Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland
  • 1995 No Sign of Dying Soon. The Past - the Physical Presence, State University of NY, NYC, USA
  • 1995 Irritation, Zderzak Gallery, Kraków, Poland
  • 1994 Fluids, Zderzak Gallery, Kraków, Poland

[edit] Awards and fellowships

[edit] References

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