26.06.2010
Negative/Positive – meeting with Kuśmirowski
On Friday, at Wyspiański Pavilion, a meeting with Robert Kuśmirowski took place, the author of the Model of the demolition project prepared for ArtBoom Tauron Festival.
This meeting was one of the favourites of the festival in turnout. Nobody was surprised, because Robert Kuśmirowski is an extraordinarily open person, constantly encouraging discussion and effectively breaking the frequently existing barrier between the viewer and the artist.
Kuśmirowski gave the meeting a casual tone and friendly atmosphere, at the beginning requesting participants to speak up and comment. Questions arose of whether he is pleased from his realisation, requests on explaining the genesis of the Model of demolition project, but also what were his relations with the community of Szeroka Street, where the work was created.
The artist talked about his activities of the latest two years, presenting a rich photographic documentation. Among others, he talked about Open City – the festival of art in public space taking place in Lublin, during which in 2009 he realised the project +- For over a fortnight he conducted heavy ground works: he personally dug a few metres of a trench in the shape of a spiral deepening in the ground, next to which he built an analogical construction from the ground dug out. The work beckons land-art works (Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty). A voice from the room also pronounced associations with great Siberian open-cast mines. As the artist admitted, this kind of mine, closed and on a much smaller scale, can be found near Lublin.
This work was also a starting point for the analysis of the Model of the demolition project. The Krakow realisation of the artist is a stage completing his activities which began in 2009 in Flanders. In the meantime, within the domain of Triennale Beaufort in one of the Belgian health resorts –Blankenberge – the artist stirred up city peace and order. For a few weeks he covered the facade of a small tenement house, giving the understanding that a renovation is taking place. However, his work was not based on renovation, but on creating an imitation of an old, destroyed Lublin tenement house, which was a great surprise for the nearby inhabitants.
These two works, Cracovian and Belgian, are like the Lublin work +-, like averse and reverse, negative and positive of one history. Remember that Robert Kuśmirowski’s work will exist in Krakow long after the official ending of the festival. We will be able to observe what is happening to this installation, at the moment sterile clean, how it writes into the context of the place and how it will be treated by time and by the inhabitants and tourists of Krakow.
Deep reflection of the artist was felt throughout the whole meeting, on art and public space, as well as high sensitivity to the viewer/participant of his work and the local community. At the end, asked by the artistic director, Małgorzata Gołębiewska, the artist talked about other propositions he has planned for Krakow and ArtBoom, causing amazement in the audience with his great artistic potential, as well as lightness and unique cohesion of his work. He also announced that he shall return to Krakow soon, this time at the invitation of the National Museum.
This meeting was one of the favourites of the festival in turnout. Nobody was surprised, because Robert Kuśmirowski is an extraordinarily open person, constantly encouraging discussion and effectively breaking the frequently existing barrier between the viewer and the artist.
The artist talked about his activities of the latest two years, presenting a rich photographic documentation. Among others, he talked about Open City – the festival of art in public space taking place in Lublin, during which in 2009 he realised the project +- For over a fortnight he conducted heavy ground works: he personally dug a few metres of a trench in the shape of a spiral deepening in the ground, next to which he built an analogical construction from the ground dug out. The work beckons land-art works (Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty). A voice from the room also pronounced associations with great Siberian open-cast mines. As the artist admitted, this kind of mine, closed and on a much smaller scale, can be found near Lublin.
This work was also a starting point for the analysis of the Model of the demolition project. The Krakow realisation of the artist is a stage completing his activities which began in 2009 in Flanders. In the meantime, within the domain of Triennale Beaufort in one of the Belgian health resorts –Blankenberge – the artist stirred up city peace and order. For a few weeks he covered the facade of a small tenement house, giving the understanding that a renovation is taking place. However, his work was not based on renovation, but on creating an imitation of an old, destroyed Lublin tenement house, which was a great surprise for the nearby inhabitants.
Deep reflection of the artist was felt throughout the whole meeting, on art and public space, as well as high sensitivity to the viewer/participant of his work and the local community. At the end, asked by the artistic director, Małgorzata Gołębiewska, the artist talked about other propositions he has planned for Krakow and ArtBoom, causing amazement in the audience with his great artistic potential, as well as lightness and unique cohesion of his work. He also announced that he shall return to Krakow soon, this time at the invitation of the National Museum.
