12 February – 9 April 2016
Jarosław Kozłowski usually works in series, reworking various themes and topics frequently recurring in his oeuvre. In Recycled Games, he combines works from two projects: the ongoing series Recycled News, started in 2006, and the cycle Gry, games, игры, etc., unveiled in 2014.
A master of conceptual reflection and linguistic games that he has pursued for many years, Kozłowski never ceases to train himself and others in language, in both its disciplining and transgressive dimensions, although today his focus has shifted towards the linguistic abuses and absurdities of the contemporary mediatised reality. Kozakiewicz transforms information media, such as newspapers or displays, into media of disinformation. In the works presented at the Profile Foundation, he recycles and redistributes language, its media and the games that, as he says, ‘we are involved in every day, whether we want it or not’. The ironic Vigilance Games and News Gamesreference the rhetorics of the linguistic and visual games that the mass media and information systems pull us into.
Shown for the first time, new works from the Recycled News series comprise an installation consisting of several dozen newspaper pages painted over with watercolours. Hailing from different parts of the world, whatever their language, place of publication or political orientation, all have been framed in the same manner, all follow the same aesthetic of rhythms and repetitions and, most importantly, all are equally indecipherable. Covering entire newspaper pages with watercolour paints, the artist not only calls their credibility into question, but also evidences the aestheticisation of mass media. Newspapers pretending to be paintings activate what he calls the ‘hypocrisy of images’, their role, like that of the media, being to obscure reality and turn our attention away from it.
Kozłowski, who doesn’t want to be a political artist, treats as purely rhetorical the question of the possibility of aesthetics beyond politics. Philosophy-engaging conceptualism was for him a school of artistic radicalisation, and his analytical investigations acquired an increasingly critical dimension. Yet his critique, dealing with the ideological and political foundations of society, is formulated in philosophical rather than political terms. His favourite strategy is to revoke and relativise meanings. For Kozłowski, both politics and aesthetics are a spectacle in which he refuses to participate. Politics in his works becomes a media babble, and aesthetics is something he treats as a school of seduction.
Bożena Czubak
Jarosław Kozłowski (1943) is currently professor at the University of Arts in Poznań. 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). In the years 1981-1987 he served as the rector of Academy of Fine Art in Poznań (today the University of Arts). 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.
He is one of the leading conceptual artists and authors of artistic books, he also took part in the artistic movement Fluxus. In 1971, he initiated the NET project – an international artistic exchange 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.
Selected solo exhibitions: odnowa Gallery, Poznań (1967); Foksal Gallery, Warsaw (1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976); Galeria Krzysztofory, Krakow (1971, 1980); Galerie S:t Petri, Lund (1977, 1979); Galerie René Block, Berlin (1979); Galerie 38, Copenhagen (1979); Matt’s Gallery, London (1980, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1996, 1999); Galerie Vor Ort, Hamburg (1980, 1982); Galerie Kanal 2, Copenhagen (1983); H.A.H., Copenhagen (1985); daadgalerie, Berlin (1985); Kastrupgardsamlingen, København (1985); Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (1986); Kunsthallen Brandts Klædefabrik, Odense (1989); Archipel, Apeldoorn (1989); Royal Le Page Building, Edmonton (1989); Kunstverein Giannozzo, Berlin (1990); Tapko, Copenhagen (1992); H.C.A.K. and The Archiv, den Haag (1993); Muzeum Sztuki, Łódź (1994); Museet for Samtidskunst, Oslo (1995); Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw (1997); National Museum, Poznań (1997); Stadtgalerie, Bern (1997); The Arbaer Museum, Reykjavik (1999); Dum Umeni mesta Brna, Brno (2000); Kunstverein, Regensburg (2004); Emerson Galerie, Berlin (2005, 2007, 2011); Starmach Gallery, Krak0w (2006); Galeria Le Guern, Warsaw (2007); Edition Rene Block, Berlin (2008); Bunkier Sztuki, Contemporary Art Gallery, KraKow (2009); Profile Foundation, Warsaw (2009, 2012, 2013); Steinek Galerie, Wiedeń (2011), Stallmuseum, Groß Fredenwalde (2013); Annex 14 Gallery, Zurich (2014); Atlas Sztuki, Lodz (2014); CSW Znaki Czasu, Toruń (2015).
