Papers by Magdalena Zieba-Grodzka
Art of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland & the Republic of Ireland in 20th-21st Centuries and Polish-British & Irish Art Relations, 2015
Last decade in Polish art has been marked by its rising expansion to the centres of European art ... more Last decade in Polish art has been marked by its rising expansion to the centres of European art including London. New Polish art has managed to go beyond the cultural and socio-political context and, due to the successful activity of couple of public institutions and commercial art galleries, it was noticed by critics and by the art establishment...
Analiza roli kuratora we współczesnym świecie oraz w Polsce w latach 70.
Sustainable Art. Facing the Need for Regeneration, Responsibility & Relations, 2015
The exhibition mentioned in the title of my essay was on display in Smart Museum of Art, Universi... more The exhibition mentioned in the title of my essay was on display in Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, between 2005 and 2006. It was conceived as a travelling exhibition; therefore it was shown in various institutions of United States till the end of 2007. In this context, the curator, Stephanie Smith, faced a difficult and complex problem: how to simultaneously present art that brings up the issues of ecology and diversity, and to organise the exposition that fulfils the principles of sustainability.
In my paper I will discuss each particular statement of the exhibition and I will feature projects executed especially for this show, which, in effect, go far beyond the definition of art, balancing on the edge between design and social activism. Giving the background of the uniqueness of Stephanie Smith’s endeavour, I will also reflect on the subject of whether contemporary art can be sustainable without being, at the same time, marginalised and treated with certain distance – as disconnected from the (institutional) mainstream.
Politics of Erasure. From “Damnatio Memoriae” to Alluring Void, 2014
The technique of appropriation has become an essential strategy in the postmodern art. Together w... more The technique of appropriation has become an essential strategy in the postmodern art. Together with the growing popularity of re-interpretations of images taken from pop culture, mass media and from the history of art, occurred the problem of their authenticity. I apply the term “recycled authenticity” to the works of art created as a pastiche or restitution of original images, with the intention of generating new, distinctive meanings.
Trickster Strategies in the Artists’ and Curatorial Practice, 2013
Artist as a trickster in the public space - conference paper in the post-conference publication.
COCAin Review of Contemporary Art Centres and Museums, Sep 2015
Analysis of the architecture of the new Spanish museums as performance and sculpture.
COCAin Review of Contemporary Art Centres and Museums, Jul 2014
In this paper I analyse the new Spanish museums' architecture using the concepts of performance a... more In this paper I analyse the new Spanish museums' architecture using the concepts of performance and sculpture.
Archivolta, 2010
Analiza architektoniczna Centrum Współczesnej Twórczości Artystycznej w Kordowie, C4
Museums and libraries have become heterotopias in which time never stops building up and topping ... more Museums and libraries have become heterotopias in which time never stops building up and topping its own summit, whereas in the seventeenth century, even at the end of the century, museums and libraries were the expression of an individual choice. By contrast, the idea of accumulating everything, of establishing a sort of general archive, the will to enclose in one place all times, all epochs, all forms, all tastes, the idea of constituting a place of all times that is itself outside of time and inaccessible to its ravages, the project of organizing in this way a sort of perpetual and indefinite accumulation of time in an immobile place, this whole idea belongs to our modernity. The museum and the library are heterotopias that are proper to western culture of the nineteenth century.
Magazine Articles by Magdalena Zieba-Grodzka
Contemporary Lynx, 2017
Increasing mobility in contemporary world has led to new ways of living and, eventually, to innov... more Increasing mobility in contemporary world has led to new ways of living and, eventually, to innovative design that responds to the need of nomadic existence.
Contemporary Lynx, 2017
The role of migration and nomadic lifestyle in the curatorial practices. With illustrations by Bo... more The role of migration and nomadic lifestyle in the curatorial practices. With illustrations by Bolesław Chromry
Contemporary Lynx, 2017
Innovative approaches to public and urban spaces in contemporary Poland
Contemporary Lynx, 2017
"Art begins with resistance..." Sociopolitical affairs and the role of art in changes the world h... more "Art begins with resistance..." Sociopolitical affairs and the role of art in changes the world has been experiencing recently.
Contemporary Lynx, 2016
Art & culture inspired by the kitschy style of the 90. pop culture
Contemporary Lynx, 2016
Polish School of Posters and its legacy in the Polish contemporary illustration and graphic design
Essay on the Polish artists of ceramics
Essay on tableware design
Essay on the Jaime Hayon's designs
Esej o twórczości Franciszka Orłowskiego
Esej wokół wystawy: KwieKulik, "Forma jest faktem społecznym", Galeria Awangarda - BWA Wrocław, 1... more Esej wokół wystawy: KwieKulik, "Forma jest faktem społecznym", Galeria Awangarda - BWA Wrocław, 16.12.2009-7.02.2010. Kuratorzy: Łukasz Ronduda, Georg Schöllhammer.
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Papers by Magdalena Zieba-Grodzka
In my paper I will discuss each particular statement of the exhibition and I will feature projects executed especially for this show, which, in effect, go far beyond the definition of art, balancing on the edge between design and social activism. Giving the background of the uniqueness of Stephanie Smith’s endeavour, I will also reflect on the subject of whether contemporary art can be sustainable without being, at the same time, marginalised and treated with certain distance – as disconnected from the (institutional) mainstream.
Magazine Articles by Magdalena Zieba-Grodzka
In my paper I will discuss each particular statement of the exhibition and I will feature projects executed especially for this show, which, in effect, go far beyond the definition of art, balancing on the edge between design and social activism. Giving the background of the uniqueness of Stephanie Smith’s endeavour, I will also reflect on the subject of whether contemporary art can be sustainable without being, at the same time, marginalised and treated with certain distance – as disconnected from the (institutional) mainstream.
In context of the posthumanism we shall see art as a territory " in between " – between the area of pure knowledge and of culture. It is in art where take place the processes of working through a difficult relationships between our particular ideas about the world and its objectified and rationalized scientific version. In my paper I will deal with the relationship between human and animal existing in contemporary art from a perspective of a bi-directional gaze, generated either in the direction of an animal, or of a man.
In works such as Jannis Kounellis's Horses (1969), or performance I Like America and America Likes Me by Joseph Beuys (1974) we observe a transformation of the meaning of animal as a being, which is a result of its relocation from real world to the context of an art gallery. Through this decontextualisation, the animal as a being is re-sanctioned, and human gaze is redirected, so that the boundary between nature and culture is erased in the most literal dimension.
Starting with these art history classics, I will try to outline the game with shifting gaze in modern culture, which reflects a major change in the relation: man vs. animal. This change, dictated by latest discoveries in science, and hence, by the fascination with biological dimension of our existence, is a contribution to a reflection on, perhaps a bit frightening question: " Who is here looking at whom? ". According to John Berger, the ontological separation of human beings from animals occurred along with the development of western bourgeois society and with the birth of the zoo in the second half of the nineteenth century (the first zoo was opened to the public in 1847 in London). In the zoo institution incarcerated animals were brought to a role of exposed objects, observed from a distance by a man, standing on the opposite side of the bars.
In works of artists such as Carsten Höller, Patricia Piccinini, Janet Laurence, Danielle van Ark, Hayden Fowler, the direction of gaze is being reversed, which leads to intuitive discovery of the mutual gazes' sameness, and at the same time, to a cognitive unity that Karen Barad writes about: "feeling, desiring and experiencing are not singular characteristics or capacities of human consciousness. Matter feels, converses, suffers, desires, yearns and remembers."