America Is Not Ready For This & Screening of his new film
Karol Radziszewski is an eclectic artist, whose complex body of work includes photographs, text, drawings, paintings, films, and re-performances, acted as bodily traces of living archival materials. His practice hybridizes personal stories and social unrest, Eastern European and American popular culture, underlining alternative stories alongside the existing narratives. transeuropa is going to show two of his works, aimed to highlight his multifaceted and unorthodox research, as well as his archive-based methodology, that crosses multiple cultural, historical, religious, social and gender references.
On the basis of the works of Jerzy Grotowski and Natalia LL – two different figures of Polish performing arts history – the artist investigates concepts related to the body and identity, that are central themes in Radziszewski’s oeuvre. The tradition of modernism and neo-avant-garde are faced in the „America Is Not Ready For This“ (2011-14) project, in which the artist is confronting both – Polish and Western – narratives of art history. Starting from the subversive work of Natalia LL, Radziszewski raises a series of questions on issues such as gender, feminist art, conceptual art, queer and East-West relations and their impact on the art world in the context of the Iron Curtain. „America Is Not Ready For This“ is an open archive in search of parallels between the artistic experiences of Natalia LL and Radziszewski, as well as an attempt to examine the rules of the positioning of artists in the art world, both at that time and today. The second project that is going to be presented, a preview of his new film, will let us catch a glimpse on Karol's most recent work – an attempt to take another look at mythical director and theatre maker Jerzy Grotowski and his work. The movie consists of a collection of different footages – it is based on archival materials and, at the same time, it is improvised and played out, in order to blur the borders between historical facts and potential fantasies. Strategies like “re-enactments” are used to link the movie to its core subject: the performative arts, as ephemeral arts, that find their archive in the performers' bodies themselves.
The films are presented in collaboration with @cetera:
America Is Not Ready For This
After 34 years Karol Radziszewski is revisiting the New York trip of the Polish performance artist Natalia LL, a representative of the then neo-avant-garde. The documentary raises a series of questions on issues such as gender, feminist art, conceptual art, queer and East-West relations and their impact on the art world in the context of the Iron Curtain.
Screening
This film is an attempt to take another look at Jerzy Grotowski – through the prism of the actors from the Laboratorium Theatre, Ryszard Cieślak in particular. Radziszewski reconstructs Cieślak’s biography on the basis of surviving fragments of performances, recordings of rehearsals, letters, and interviews.
@cetera with Karol Radziszewski:
The discussion series @cetera is presenting a forum for people working in the media. Far away from any fashionable “discourse-disco” they invite you to an open exchange of opinions and experiences. @cetera will talk to Karol Radziszewski about strategies working with documentary material.
Karol Radziszewski
Karol Radziszewski (b. 1980) lives and works in Warsaw (Poland) where he received his MFA from the Academy of Fine Arts in 2004. He works with film, photography, installations and creates interdisciplinary projects. His practice extends to magazines, artist books, fashion as well as curatorial concept projects. Since 2005 he is publisher and editor-in-chief of DIK Fagazine. His work has been presented in institutions such as the National Museum, Museum of Modern Art, Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw; Kunsthalle Wien; New Museum, New York; Cobra Museum, Amsterdam; Wrocław Contemporary Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków and Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź. He has participated in several international biennales including PERFORMA 13, New York; 7th Göteborg Biennial; 4th Prague Biennial and 15th WRO Media Art Biennale.
Screening „America Is Not Ready For This“, 2012, 67 min (In Polish language with English subtitles):
Wed. 27.05. 21:30 h / Festival Centre (Auditorium)
Sat. 30.05. 21:00 h / Festival Centre (Auditorium)
Screening of his new film, 2014, 71 min (In Polish language with English subtitles):
Thu. 28.05. 17:00 h / Festival Centre (Auditorium)
After this screening:
Talk, @cetera with Karol Radziszewski (In English language):
Thu. 28.05. 18:15 h / Festival Centre (Auditorium) / Free entry
Foto: Adam Tuchlinski
