9.03-21.04.2012
In his latest project, Jarosław Kozłowski scrutinizes with suspicion the correlation of language to the reality that it describes or represents. Calling forth the notion of empathy, he unveils the cultural, political and economic uses (and abuses) of virtually iconic representations that seem familiar and obvious. By juxtaposing and replicating some recognizable elements of the visual environment, he doesn’t propose simple contradictions or relationships. The latter often turn out to be a purely rhetorical game, as in the multiplied image of Mao in the work entitled Empathy of Chairman Mao for the Chinese nation and vice versa. The artist multiplies the doubts, unveils the paradoxes and ambiguities that are part of a mechanistic reading of history and contemporaneity, as in Empathy of Mr Hitler for Mr Stalin and vice versa. Jarosław Kozłowski, a leading figure of conceptual art, humorously deconstructs generally accepted myths, skilfully fishes them out from currents of meaning and from their trivialization. In perverse visual and language-based games, he distorts the contemporary visual world where images prevail disconnected from their prototypes, and where the aesthetics of design commodify even such niche practices as street art.
Jarosław Kozłowski is one of the leading conceptual artists and authors of artistic books, he also took part in the artistic movement Fluxus. During the 60s. and the 70s. considered one of the most consequential conceptualists Kozłowski has engaged in analytical reflection and linguistic studies as well as performance art. During the 80s. the artist began to create large-scope installations in which he took on board criticism of how art functions in society: among others, series of works devoted to de-mythologising art. During the 90s. and until the present time, Kozłowski has been the author of a number of spectacular installations in which he deals with problems of modernist traditions and the social and political context of art. Born in 1945 in Srem. In the years 1963-1969, he studied painting at the State Graduate School of Visual Arts in Poznań (today the University of Arts in Poznań), where he has also taught (paiting and drawing) since 1967. In the years 1981-1987, he served as the academy`s rector. He has also taught at Statens Kunstakademi in Oslo (1992-1997), Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunste in Amsterdam (1992-2004), Academy Without Walls in Lusaca ( 1999, 2001),and at the Faculty of Pedagogy and Fine Arts of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (2005-2010). He is currently professor at the University of Arts in Poznań. In 1971, he initiated the NET project- an international artistic exchange. Between 1972-90, he founded and then ran the Akumulatory Gallery in Poznań, which presented the work of Polish and international avant-garde artists. In 1991-1993, he was programming curator of the gallery and collection of the Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw. Fellowships with The British Council in London (1979) and DAAD Berlin (1984-85). He lives and works in Poznań.
