Wladyslaw Kazmierczak
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Kazmierczak Wladyslaw
(b Psary Great Poland, June 27th 1951). Polish performance artist and curator of the International Performance Art Festival “Castle of Imagination”. He studied at the Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Art in Krakow (1971–76), atelier of prof. Jonasz Stern. Kazmierczak is considered as one of Europe's foremost performance artists. He has worked as a live artist since 1974 creating hundreds of unique performances at major galleries, museums, festivals, alternative venues and sites specific throughout the world in 26 countries.
1991 – 2006 director of the Baltic Gallery of Contemporary Art in Slupsk / Poland. Member of IKT the International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art (Paris). Since 1993 curator and organiser of the International Performance Art Festival „Castle of Imagination” in Poland, USA, Germany and UK.
Author of essays on contemporary art published in: NEW ART IN POLAND “EXIT”, Art Newsletter, Art Magazine On Line “Raster”, Art Magazine On Line „Hysterics“, Art Magazine „ESSE“ / Canada, Art Magazine “ARTeon” / Poland, Art Magazine “Inter Le Lieu” / Quebec, Regional Kashubian Magazine „POMERANIA“, Art Magazine „Umelec“, Prague, Czech Rep., Art Magazine „Respect“, Prague, Czech Rep, Art & Poetry Magazine “Dwukropek”, Poland
Lectures on performance art: University in Huddersffield, Ulster University in Belfast, Great Britain, Art College – Limerick, Ireland, The School of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, USA, The Art College, Toronto, Canada, Academy of Fine Art, Lodz, Poland, Theatre Centre “Rondo”, Slupsk, Poland, Baltic Gallery of Contemporary Art, Slupsk, Poland, Haifa University, Israel, The Tullie House Gallery, Carlisle, England, Performance Art Platform, Tel Aviv, Israel, The Empire Gallery, London, UK.
Kazmierczak is identified with a strain of performance relating more to visual art and action. He is using often many gadgets and things from the pop culture, changing theirs function and meanings. The idea of performance is always a main construction of each performance. The statement of the artist says: To be a performer is an attitude towards the world and oneself, not towards art. And next: Performance's struggle is a silent, heroic fight for the freedom of expressing momentous and significant ideas. His work focuses on difficult and traumatic themes; issues of oppression, freedom, coercion, subversion, experiences of alienation, appropriation of cultures, globalization, and communal conflicts. His work physically and emotionally embodies the divisive forces of a new capitalism and materialist addiction; processes of building and disintegration and the resulting journey toward redemption.
He began creating performance art actions in 1974 performance "I love DADA...Help! Flight Out of Time: Stone 1" at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. After 1976 he produced site specific performances like "If I think about Marcel Duchamp and performance I love DADA...Help!". At that time he also performed on the streets and public spaces. He did the first performance (named performance) in the gallery space "In the run" at the “Pryzmat” Gallery in Krakow in 1979.
In the early 80s Kazmierczak produced a number of political performances based on freedom aspects in Poland (“Repressive Tolerance”). The short period of a very intensive performance activity especially in non – official galleries was ended in Poland by Marshal Law on December 13, 1981. The last performance of Kazmierczak’s before the Marshal Law had a title: "If I think about totalitarianism, If I think about Marcel Duchamp." He used a very ironic and nihilistic attitude to the formalized Polish vanguard and the reality of the life in communistic country. He also ironically did and titled the next performance piece "Avangarde – en – Avant" at the Krzysztofory Gallery, the main venue of Krakow’s Group, which pretended to take a leading, vanguard position in the Polish art scene.
After 1981 he performed from time to time, taking part in boycott of the official galleries. Some performances like A shiver he did in Darmstadt (Germany) or in Paris another performance A – B. He performed in the student’s galleries and non-important venues.
In 1991 he moved from Krakow to Northern Poland to Slupsk City to work as curator and director of the Baltic Gallery of Contemporary Art. Soon, after two years, he started with a new activity on performance art as a performer.
He also curate since 1993 the oldest performance art event in Poland the International Performance Art Festival “Castle of Imagination” taking place annually in various locations throughout Poland since 1993. Kazmierczak invited the international artists from all over the world to the festival. By his curatorial activity he developed the performance art in Poland and later on in others countries (Belarus). Castle of Imagination is a place where usually the new artists meet each other from European, Asian, American, African and Middle East countries.
Kazmierczak become soon as a well known performer in Europe and Asia. In 1995 he performed in Tokyo, Nagano, Quebec, Paris and Pusan (Korea). At that time he became as a key artist of performance art in Poland and significant performer in Europe. The next performances he did at the important performance art festivals among others in Rome, Glasgow, Belfast, Paris, Dublin, Seoul, Budapest, Berlin, Mexico City, Vilnius, New York City, Tokyo, Pusan, Munchen, Krakow, Limerick and in many others places. The main ideas presented by Kazmierczak are concentrated on ecology, consumerism, racism, aggression of white man, identity of multicultural societies, nationalism, peace and freedom. Titles: "Greenpeace", "Multiple Self Portrait in the Mirrors", "The End", "DADA…da, da, da", "All Poles are one big family", "To the Better Future", "24 h". Some of these performances were repeated in different versions.
In 1997 he began creating collaborative works with Ewa Rybska. They are until now the only artists in Poland who perform collectively. The last period had many interesting performance pieces like "Pulp Fiction" based on Tarantino’s film, "Ecstasy" which was related to techno culture, "Modern Talking" simply analyzed the relation between modernism and postmodernism, "Body & East" considered the new situation of the body after fall down of communism ideology.
Ewa Rybska & Wladyslaw Kazmierczak as a duo performers produced a number of political performances looking at many problematic aspects of the policy in democratic countries, focused on difficult and traumatic themes; political hypocrisy, issues of oppression, freedom and elimination of the origins cultures by the process of globalization. They often use in performances their ironic and nihilistic attitude especially against to the empty, fashionable values and artificial icons in the art and culture. (“NYC: I Like America and America Likes Me”, „Make noise not War”, „Body & Sin”, „Paranoia is un-American”, „Sonne Statt Reagan”. „Piss on PiS - the PiS is un ultraconservative party in Poland )” The duo Rybska & Kazmierczak did over 120 performances in 20 countries: Slovakia, Italy, Germany, Czech Republic, Belarus, Ireland, Slovenia, Mexico, Indonesia, Canada, Korea, France, USA, Israel, Finland, Estonia, Spain, Sweden, Great Britain and Poland.
After the political attacks from the local ultraconservative MP (close friend of Prime Minister and President of Poland) in 2006 Wladyslaw Kazmierczak resigned to be a director of the Baltic Contemporary Art Gallery, Ewa Rybska did not want to be anymore a curator there and they moved from Poland to UK.
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