| WHO | WHAT | WHEN | WHERE | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Althamer PawełWas born in 1967 in Warsaw and he uses sculpture, video installations, film and performance in his work. However, one of the most important subjects of his artistic interests are activities based on participation and interactivity – co-operation and work with others, oriented towards their participation in the creative process and restoring their creative energy; with people who in various manners and due to various reasons, very often not depending on them, stay aloof from “the main course of social life and culture". In his works the artist proposes, among others, a versatile attitude towards the issues connected with identity (including the artist’s, art’s and a work of art's identity), the systems of values connected with it, the ways of its perception and experiencing – both by an individual, group, community and institutions. He lets us experience a fascinating extraordinariness and joy from discovering what is the simplest and most rudimentary in an unusual and refreshing way, each time posing the question: what is usual and what is unusual. The most important projects developed by the artist in recent years include, among others, the project Einstein's Class with the participation of children from Praga - a district in Warsaw (2005), projects with Grupa Nowolipie e.g. Flight (2007), projects with the participation of the residents of Bródno – a district in Warsaw where the artist lives, including Bródno 2000. Quite recently he has started a series Common Cause, which will include artistic workshops in the capital of Brazil in 2009 and also the project Paweł Aldhamer und Andere, developed in Secession in Vienna (2009) and the project Fruehling with the participation of several hundred children at Kunsthalle Fredericianum in Kassel (2009) Althamer participated, among others, in Documenta X in Kassel in 1997 and Sculptur Projekte Muenster 07 in Muenster in 2007. He is also the winner of the Vincent van Gogh award in the field of contemporary art, granted to him in 2004. |
The Fraternity of a Sedan Chair In his project The Fraternity of a Sedan Chair Paweł Althamer proposed to look at the city with the eye of a newcomer from the outside – from another world, the outer space. The city is the stage of a large theatre with wonderful decorations and a fascinating history, and the artist introduced there an atmosphere similar to unusual carnivals in Venice, celebrations of the Far East. The Mysterious Fraternity of a Sedan Chair, as if from another world, played for a moment the unusual spectacle of sedan chairs designed by the artist. What is usual and daily – e.g. the way home, from work or for a walk – becomed what is unusual: a mysterious, almost magical sedan chair journey along the equally mysterious and magical alleys of the city. Althamer proposed the experience of illumination, maybe similar to the one that is presented in the trailers for his films “in real time”: all that is seemingly usual and daily is really unusual, exceptional and beautiful. It is sufficient to be attentive enough to experience it.  Project curators: Marek Goździewski, Marcin Gołębiewski Pictures: Weronika Szmuc |
17/06/2009
The Fraternity of a Sedan Chair
|
Main Market - Centralny Square
Start: Main Market; end: Nowa Huta |
