Opening: Thursday, October 1, 2020, 11 am–7 pm
The exhibition is on view through October 30, 2020
Tuesday–Saturday, 12 noon–7 pm
During the Warsaw Gallery Weekend: October 1–4, 11 am–7 pm
The intermedia work of Ryszard Waśko encompasses activities in various media: film, video, video installation, photography, drawing and painting. The artist’s works from the 1970s show his participation in neo-avant-garde experiments and his rebellion against traditionally understood art.
The analytical themes of his artistic practice were developed in pieces created during his activities in the Film Form Workshop. The extensive set of photographs presents the artist’s innovative search for ways to visualise movement and space. The problem of the reliability of film and photographic recordings, especially the relationship between reality and its visual representation, finds various interpretations in the series of video installations.
The artist’s set of early films offers insights into experiments with framing, editing, sound, and film tape manipulation. Pioneering video art productions expose the relationship between the body and the medium treated as an extension of human activity.
The selection of works emphasises the interpenetration of various media in Ryszard Waśko’s artistic practice, who in photography analysed movement and time characteristic of the language of film, while in film, he used static frames characteristic of photography. Large-format pieces that combine various media, from two series never before shown in Poland, illustrate the intermedia aspect of his work: Hypothetical Photography (1977) and Hypothetical Film (1979).
The narrative of the exhibition includes photographs from the early 1980s, which are a record and commentary on political events and the accompanying social emotions.
Ryszard Waśko (born 1949) a multimedia artist, filmmaker, author of video installations, paintings, drawings, photographs, collages, objects, installations and performances. He studied at the The Leon Schiller National Film School in Łódź, when he also worked from 1970 to 1983. In the 1970s a member of the Film Form Workshop (Warsztat Formy Filmowej), from 1990 to 1992 he was the programme director of the P.S. 1 gallery in New York. 1997-1999 the chairman of Internationales Künstler Gremium in Cologne. Curator of many exhibitions, i.e. the initiator of the international project ‘Construction in Process’. He lives and works in Berlin.
His works were included in solo and group exhibitions at venues such as 12th São Paulo Art Biennal (1973); Remont Gallery, Warsaw (1975); m Galerie, Bochum (1976, 1981, 2008); Documenta 6, Kassel (1977); Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne (1977); Art Musem, Łódź; (1979, 2011) De Appel, Amsterdam (1979); Hayward Gallery, London (1979); Biennale of Sydney, Sydney (1980); Biennale de Paris, Paris (1981); Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (1983); Kesseler Kunstverein, Kassel (1984); Kunsthaus, Nuremberg (1985); Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin (1986); Akademie der Künste, Berlin (1989; 2015); KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (1992); Galerie Schüppenhauer, Cologne (1994); Haifa Museum of Art, Haifa (1996,1999); Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, Warsaw (1997); Artists’ Museum, Łódź (1997); Lombard-Freid Gallery, New York (1997); Art in General, New York (1998); Venice Biennale, Venice (1999, 2001); Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart (2000); Centre of Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw (2000, 2007); Many H. Gallery, Tel Aviv (2001), Museum of Modern Art, New York (2003); Electronic Arts Intermix, New York (2004); Tate Modern Gallery, London (2005, 2006, 2008); Lentos Kunstmuseum, Linz (2009); Museum of Cinematography, Łódź (2010); Galerie Żak/Branicka, Berlin (201); Freies Museum, Berlin (2011, 2012); Martin Gropius-Bau, Berlin (2011); New Museum, New York (2011); DAAD Galerie, Berlin (2013); TRAFO Center for Contemporary Art, Szczecin (2013); Kulturhuset, Stockholm (2014); MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art, Krakow (2014); Neuer Kunstverein Wien, Venna (2015); Profile Foundation, Warsaw (2019); Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (2020); Galerie aKonzept, Berlin (2020)
