Friday,
26 April
Wojciech Zamiara
You Will Go Up and I Will Go Down the Valley
Curator: Jolanta Woszczenko
The Jan Tarasin Art Gallery in Kalisz
Feb 2-25.2023
Zamiara’s works are characterized by aesthetic minimalism and the use of paradox. What is interesting about his practice are his constant attempts to interpret his own self. Using succinct means, the artist involves the viewer in an emotional and intellectual game.
The title of this exhibition, You Will Go over the Mountain, I through the Valley, refers to Wojciech Zamiara’s latest work and the video he made with his friend Witosław Czerwonka. When showing Zamiara’s art, one has to mention Czerwonka and the influence both artists exerted on each other. Their friendship began in 1986 and lasted until Czerwonka’s death. Zamiara and Czerwonka taught the now-cult classes popularizing new media at the Basics of Visual Design studio of the Gdańsk Academy of Fine Arts. Their alumnae included Robert Rumas, Piotr Wyrzykowski, Jacek Niegoda, Dominik Lejman, Adam and Ania Witkowski, Tomasz Kopcewicz, Tuse, Robert Jurkowski, and Jarosław Bartołowicz.
Zamiara and Czerwonka made only two video works together. Titled I Have the Upper Hand and do re mi, they may be interpreted as commenting on their relationship and outlook on the world and art. The third work, a performance titled GO, was initiated by Wojciech Zamiara, who asked Witosław Czerwonka to join him. The exhibition will show documentation of this work from 1990, which involved the two men standing opposite one another united by a plastic tube. The performance was about sharing and, ultimately, the two friends’ struggle for breath.
Zamiara is regarded as one of the pioneers and most eminent representatives of video art in Poland, he mostly exhibited his works during festivals and collective shows. At the exhibitions we will be showing video works, photographs, as well as documentation of Zamiara’s installations and performances from 1985–2022, made with the participation of his loved ones.
Works presented at the exhibition would not have been created without the help of Jarosław
Bartołowicz, Witosław Czerwonka, Wojciech Kozłowski, Leszek Krutulski, Anna Kuczyńska, Agata Lehman, Jan Matejko, Vahram Mkhitaryan, Wojciech Olejniczak, Jerzy Ostrogórski, Piotr Różycki, Barbara Taill, Jerzy Wódkowski, ZbyZiel, Bartosz Żukowski, …
Wojciech Zamiara, for B…, from the series Monuments, fot. ZbyZiel, 1997
Wojciech Zamiara is an interdisciplinary artist working with video and performance art, photography, and multimedia installations. He co-created the Water Tower Gallery and, for several years, ran the gallery at Mózg club (both in Bydgoszcz). Since 1986, he has taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, where he is currently a full professor and dean of the Photography major.
His works have been shown at many important contemporary art centres, including Berlin, Kassel, Cologne, São Paulo, Tokyo, London, and MOMA, New York.
Organizer:
The Jan Tarasin Art Gallery in Kalisz, Culture Institution of Kalisz
The partner of the organization of the exhibition is Łaźnia CCA in Gdańsk
Media Patronage:
Radio Centrum Kalisz, portal Calisia.pl oraz Ziemia Kaliska
Gallery partners:
Ergo Hestia, Polifarb Kalisz S.A., M&P ALKOHOLE I WINA ŚWIATA.
Wojciech Zamiara’s exhibition You will go up and I will go through the valley was produced by the ŁAZNIA Centre for Contemporary Art in Gdańsk and was shown from 10th of November 2022 to 8th of January 2023 at Łaznia 2 CCA.