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"Psycho Pompos" Monsieur Zupika and Kinki Texas

07.04.10 14:10:00

Psycho Pompos
Monsieur Zupika ( Maciej Szupica) and Kinki Texas (Holger Meier)
23 April 2010 – 11 June 2010
Opening: 23 April 2010, 9 p.m.
Closing (surprise): 11 June 2010, 7.30 p.m.
ggm1
Free admission

The fourth exhibition from the Dialogues series is titled Psycho Pompos. This time it's a meeting of two very strong artistic personalities from Gdańsk and Bremen: Monsieur Zupika (Maciej Szupica) and Kinki Texas (Holger Meier).
It's a meeting of two artists that both use such techniques as: drawing, painting, graphics and computer and film graphics that combine  picture with music and make unique visualisations.
The quote of Wilhelm de Kooning describes the artists' work perfectly:
“Every intelligent painter has in mind the entire history of the modern painting which is the subject of his art. Everything that he paints is homage to, or a critique of, that history and all that it says is a comment on that history” .
Kinki-Texas is a painter and a drawer. He creates 3D computer animations and music video-installations. He is an eccentric rock musician and a Western films world lover. He creates his  unique and macabre, but beautiful world very consequently. He mixes historical elements with occidental culture symbols. Without inhibition, he laughs at the pop culture using its characteristic symbols like computer games' elements along with symbols of petite bourgeoisie or revolutionary culture. Even though his work is very sarcastic, sometimes showing no respect at all, we seem to be enchanted with this unique universum. The title of the exhibition comes from one of his paintings  Psycho Pompös. Psychopomps (from Greek, literally meaning the "guide of souls") are also creatures, spirits, angels, or deities in many religions whose responsibility is to escort newly-deceased souls to the afterlife. Their role is not to judge the deceased, but simply provide safe passage. At the exhibition Kinki Texas will show his paintings, drawings and some 3D videos.
Maciej Szupica is a very versatile artist who is interested in combining different forms of artistic expression such as music, painting, sculpture and photography, which he treats very experimentally ( for example by using camera obscura). He is a director of many music videos, a stage designer, photographer, a VJ, computer graphic, poster designer and a performer. He can't be put into just one category.
In Psycho Pompos  he will show his three new works: a short video and two installations- one inspired by street lighting commercials and one combining video and sound.
About artists:
Holger Meier- graduate of Philosophy Faculty of  Bremen University. He's had exhibitions in Germany ( Bremen, Koln), Italy ( Milano, Bolzano, Rome) and United States.
www.kinki-texas.com
Maciej Szupica ( born in 1975)- graduate of Graphic and Sculpture Faculty of Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk. He teaches at the Mutlimedia Studio at the Academy. He's had exhibitions in Germany  ( Berlin, Hamburg), Belgium, Ukraine, Belarus and Poland.
www.myspace.com/monsieur_zupika

"Sleep-walk" by Ania and Adam Witkowscy

08.03.10 12:32:00

sleep-walk by Ania and Adam Witkowscy
12 March 2010- 16 April 2010
opening: Friday, 12 March 2010, 7.30 p.m.
27 March, 7.30 p.m. concert by Voice Electronic Duo ( Zosia Esden and Marcin Dymiter)
ggm1 ( Piwna 27/29)
Free admission

The exhibition "sleep-walk" by an artistic couple Ania and Adam Witkowscy isn't strictly about the dreams, but the vibrations of the mind, thoughts' movement, different forms of travelling, especially the mental travels.
The artists say:
We are trying to catch the moments when we are looking into our inside and we are denying the reality of the world or we are transforming it so it will fit our vision. We want to remind everybody of these everyday journeys. We don't analyse dreams, we are not trying to explain what deja vu is, we don't tell nightmares. We are building our own copy of a dream-machine to give the audience a potential ability to rearrange their brains to a different state of consciousness. By putting the dream-machine inside the gallery we question the reality that is surrounding it – the space, objects and sounds.
We use dadaism, its absurd, irrationality- the 20th Century's European TAO. It's main idea was “dadaism is a state of mind”, not formal art.
We will also show a film about a girl trapped on the floating icebergs. Margitte will probably write about her: “this is not a girl trapped on the floating icebergs” . We will also show modern coffin portraits- white, universal, anonymous.

www.aniawitkowska.com

www.adamwitkowski.com

"dialogue 4" exhibition from 15 January at ggm1

09.12.09 12:38:00

Exhibition: dialog 4/ dialogue 4
Alicja Karska with Aleksandra Went (Gdańsk) and Marina Steinacker with Susanne Katharina Willand (Bremen)
15 January 2010 - 5 March 2010
opening: 15 January 2010, 7 p.m.
curator: Iwona Bigos
Gdańska Galeria Miejska 1/Gdańsk City Gallery, Tue-Sun. 11-17
Free admission

Even though it is a third exhibition from the “Dialogi/Dialogues” series it is titled “dialogue 4”. The artists decided that since there's four of them the title should have a “4” in it and that there won't be a “dialogue 3” exhibition.

Karska/Went (Gdańsk) and Steinacker/Willand (Bremen) are two artistic duos that have been working in pairs for a few years. Genre of their work is: video, installations and photography.

Karska/Went duo will show their new photography cycle “Miniatury”/”Miniatures”. These are pictures of doll-houses' interiors that are decorated with the real pictures taken by the artists. They are “miniatures in miniatures”. It's  a game between proportions, illusions and reality. In these pictures there's “something” missing. They show a contrast between a magical doll-house and reality where the real house is missing.

Steinacker/Willand prepared three pieces: a video “Ansichten/ Sights”, photographies „Stationen/ Stations” and an installation titled “Twice told tale”.
“Sights” is a 3D animation showing mountains. It is illustrated with a romantic music composed by Johann Strauss. Only after watching the whole video, we realise that the landscape is an illusion created by the use of postcards.
“Stations” are made of twelve original postcards from 60's and 70's, that artists found on flea-markets, showing beautiful landscapes of Norway and twelve photographies of the same places taken recently. The artists, inspired by the original postcards found these places in Norway and created modern postcards. This series, in contradiction to the virtual journey of “Sights” , shows “real” idyllic places. 
“Twice told tale” was created especially for the “dialogue 4” exhibition.Two almost identical houses that look like architectural models are put into a transparent box. Their pure form represents the idea of a "home". They are presented not in a regular, (vertical) way, but they are presented horrizontally. Their roofs are facing each other and by this, creating a brand new figure.

About artists:
Alicja Karska ( born in 1978 in Poland). She graduated from Fine Arts Academy in Gdańsk in 2003. She's won many prizes and scholarships, including The Polish Minister of Culture Scholarship and residence in Bremen and Stuttgart. She's had individual exhibitions in Gdańsk, Słupsk,Warsaw and Poznań, and took part in many collective exhibitions in Stuttgart, Tel Aviv, Chicago, Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen.
Aleksandra Went ( born in 1976 in Poland ). She graduated from Fine Arts Academy in Gdańsk in 2003. She's won many prizes and scholarships, including the Grand Prix in President of Poland's contest for the best work of a Fine Arts Academy's graduate in 2003. She's had solo exhibitions in Gdańsk, Warsaw, Poznań and took part in collective exhibitions in Sofia, Tel Aviv, Chicago, Stuttgart, Hamburg and Bremen. The artists started working together in 2002.
http://www.karska-went.info

Marina Steinacker ( born in 1974 in Germany). She graduated from University of Arts in Bremen (Master of Fine Arts). She's won some German prizes and scholarships.
Susanne Katharina Willand ( born in 1974 in Austria). She graduated from University of Arts in Bremen ( Fashion Design Diploma). She's won some German prizes and scholarships.
Steinacker/Willand have been working as an artistic duo since  2007. Together they took part in many exhibitions in Germany, Russia, Iceland and Norway. “dialogues 4” is their first exhibition in Poland.
www.steinacker-willand.de

"posłowie/epilogue- Katarzyna Józefowicz

14.10.09 10:54:00

Katarzyna Józefowicz – "posłowie/epilogue"
21 November 2009- 8 January 2010, Gdańska Galeria Miejska 1 (ggm1)/Gdańsk City Gallery
Opening: 21 November 2009, 7 p.m.
Closing: 8 January 2010, 7 p.m. - performance by Amareya Theatre
Curator: Grażyna Tomaszewska -Sobko
Meetings with the curator: Saturday 28 November 2009, 1 p.m. ( for schools) and Friday 18 December, 6 p.m.

Katarzyna Józefowicz is a well known and respected professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk. She has won many artistic awards, but above all, Katarzyna Józefowicz is a great sculptor.

In her works she usually organizes the space by turning objects that are full of energy and anxiety into neutral, warm and cosy places. Creating these works is very time-consuming for the artist, but she treats the monotony of the process as if it was some kind of creative trance and meditation.
The artist often uses materials that were left to be recycled: cardboard, old magazines and especially newspapers, which are the main material of her latest project.
In “posłowie”/”epilogue” exhibition in Gdańsk City Gallery 1 ( Gdańska Galeria Miejska 1) Katarzyna Józefowicz shows her latest installation. She cut out random words out of the newspapers and stuck them together in ornament sequences. Words taken out of their original context and stuck together lose their ominous power. The emotions that they once carried are lost and bad information or brazen commercials charm us only with their decorative form, not the previous meaning.

Katarzyna Józefowicz was born in 1959 in Lublin. She graduated from The Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk. She's had individual exhibitions in: BWA Gallery in Bydgoszcz (1996), Foksal Gallery (2001), Foksal Gallery Foundation in Warsaw (2002 and 2005), Arsenal Gallery in Białystok (2003), Platán Gallery in Budapest (2006), Wozownia Gallery (2007), CSW Łaźnia in Gdańsk (2007). She also took part in group exhibitions such as: Public Relations in CSW Łaźnia in Gdańsk (1999), II Berlin Biennale (2001), Biennale of Sydney (2002), Decade in CSW Zamek Ujazdowski in Warsaw, Architectures of Gender in Sculpture Centre in New York, Bewitched Bothered Bewildered in Migros Museum in Zurich (2003), Biennale in Łódź (2004), “W Polsce czyli gdzie?/ In Poland, where?”, in CSW Zamek Ujazdowski in Warsaw, Ideal City - Invisible Cities in Zamość and Potsdam (2006).
She's won many prizes and scholarships, such as: Gold Medal in Triennale of Fabric in Łódź (2001), The City of Gdańsk Culture Prize ( 2002) and Polityka's Passport (2001).
She is a professor in The Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk. She lives in Gdańsk.

Amareya Theatre ( “amareya” in old Japanese- heroic devotion, unconditional sacrifice) is a theatre of  body and motion. It was founded in 2003 by Agnieszka Kamińska, Katarzyna Julia Pastuszak and Aleksandra Śliwińska. Since then it has been functioning by Klub “Winda” – Gdański Archipelag Kultury/ Gdańsk Archipelago of Culture.
The theatre specializes in three types of activities: artistic- its own shows, theatrical projects and  performances; didactic- buto dance workshops, dance-theatre workshops, vocal and motion workshops, lectures and publications on dance and theatre, and finally culture animation.

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