Krzysztof Wodiczko
Date: Thursday December 02, 2004
Time: 8:00 p.m.
Place: Rarig Center - Proscenium Auditorium
Born: Warsaw, Poland
Lives: Boston and
New York, USA
See bio on: Krzysztof Wodiczko
Introduction: Michal Kobialka, Professor of Theater Arts, University of Minnesota
"Keynote Address"
Synopsis:
My presentation will focus on Instrumentation and Projection projects, and
will elaborate on their psycho-political, ethical, and aesthetic dimensions.
With the aid of especially designed bodily equipment, my Projections "animate" in real time, and (most rcently) in an interactive way, the facades of public edifices and historic monuments. Much smaller in their scale, wearable Instrumentations share with these monumental projects similar artistic, psychological and political objectives. Both Projections and Instrumentations require preparatory filming and editing process to help participants in constructing their testimonies and preparing them for improvised public performance.
The aim of my projects is to inspire and assist the performers (in Instrumentations) and monument animators (in Projections) in developing, perfecting, and "projecting" their voice and gestures into public realm.
In all preparatory stages and in final public performance, through writing their scripts and mastering their skills in acting and animation, the participants become co-authors and co-artists in my projects. In this process (as in a kind of dramatic, techno-political therapy), they may find it easier to overcome their postraumatic silence, lack of self-confidence, shame and fear. Through the gained or regained speech and expression, they may act as "fearless speakers" who openly disclose and question the unexpected and unwanted truth.
I hope that my projects can inspire and assist participants in becoming not only public witnesses and critics, but also agents, who act in the open toward the common good and who are committed to struggle for justice and social change.
I also hope that spectacular, visually and acoustically seductive character of the Instrumentations and Projections aa well as the artistry of participants performance, their personal engagement of public space (with Instrumentations) and their passionate animation of prestigious civic monuments (with Projections) - may help the spectators to come closer and open their eyes and ears to the conveyed statements and testimonies
Biography: Krzysztof Wodiczko
Artist, writer, educator,
1994-present - Professor of Visual Arts and Director, Interrogative Design
Work Group, CAVS, MIT, Cambridge M.A. USA
Krzysztof Wodiczko emigrated twice, from Poland to Canada and then from Canada to the United States. He now shares his time between New York and Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he is the director of the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Since 1980, Krzysztof Wodiczko has also created over 70 projections of politically charged images on monuments and public buildings. Public projections include: The Hirshhorn Museum, Washington D.C. (1988); The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1989); Arco de la Victoria, Madrid (1991); City Hall Tower, Krakow (1996); Bunker Hill Monument, Boston (1998); A-Bomb Dome, Hiroshima (1999); and El Centro Cultural, Tijuana, Mexico (2001).
Selected Recent Career Highlights:
In 1996, Krzysztof Wodiczko began projecting video images involving sound and motion. The Hiroshima Projection, a third projection of such kind, was organized after he was awarded the Hiroshima Art Prize in 1999 "for his contribution as an artist to world peace". A participatory and interactive projection has been staged in April 2004 in St. Louis, where Mr. Wodiczko, with the participation of a group of city residents who lost their closest to urban violence - animated one of the city’s most historic buildings - the Central Library,
Throughout his career, Mr. Wodiczko has also developed a series of tools and devices for urban interventions, such as Homeless Vehicle (1988-89), Poliscar (1991), as well as portable and wearable communication instrumentations such as Alien Staff (1992), Porte-Parole (1994), AEgis (2000) and Dis-Armor (1999-present). Dis-Armor, which was first developed for the City of Hiroshima, was recently on view in the exhibition Strangers: The First International Center of Photography Triennial of Photography and Video. Dis-Armor is a continuing cultural project and was presented in the exhibition Interventions at MASS MoCA in 2004.
Mr. Wodiczko's work has been exhibited in numerous international festival and exhibitions including: Paris Biennale (twice), Biennale of Sao Paulo( twice), The Sydney Biennale, Documenta, Germany (twice); The Kwang-ju Biennale, South Korea; The Venice Biennale (twice); The Biennale in Lyon, France, Helsinki Bienalle, Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial, Kyoto Biennale, and the Yokohama Triennale.
In 2006 a major retrospective exhibition of Mr. Wodiczko's work will be held in Poland at the Zacheta National Gallery of Contemporary Art in Warsaw
At the end of 2004 ,as a part of Art 21 series, a PBS program devoted to Mr.Wodiczko's work, will be nationaly broadcasted.
Mr. Wodiczko is commissioned by the city of Nantes, (with the architect Julian Bonder) to design a Memorial commemorating the Abolition of Slavery in France.
Mr. Wodiczko has been invited by the Israeli Digital Arts Center in Hulon to develop and implement a proposal for public art project to be realized in Israel in November 2004.
Mr. Wodiczko's work can be found in numerous public collections such as: The Fundació Tapies, Barcelona, Spain; Muzeum Sztuki, Lodz, Poland, The Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; the Israel Museum, Jerusalem; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Lyon, France; FNAC, and FNAC Ile de France, Paris; FRAC Pays de la Loire, Nantes, France; The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto; The Jewish Museum, New York; The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; The Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, and The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York
Education: 1968 Graduated with M.F.A. in industrial design from Akademia Sztuk Pieknych (Academy of Fine Arts), Warsaw where he also had completed his undergraduate studies.
Curriculum Vita (download .pdf)Bibliography (download .pdf)