Artur Żmijewski – he studied at Faculty of Sculpture of Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, where he defended his diploma in studio of professor Grzegorz Kowalski. He is an artistic editor of “Krytyka Polityczna” magazine. He published “Trembling Bodies”, a series of interviews with artists (2007). In 2013, he was awarded Jerzy Stajuda Prize for Art Criticism. He represented Poland at Venice Biennale, exhibited at MIT Art Centre in Boston, Museum of Modern Art in New York, and Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin. He was a curator of Berlin Biennale. He was awarded Ordway Prize by New Museum in New York – one of the most prestigious American artistic awards. His works are in collections of Museum of Modern Art in New York and Tate London. He cooperates with the Foksal Gallery Foundation. He lives and works in Warsaw.
“In-between”, 2018-2019
photography cycle
Artur Żmijewski is one of the leading representatives of critical art, director, artistic editor of “Krytyka Polityczna” magazine, author of video and photography works. In his works he undertakes topics related to cultural taboos, corporeality, otherness, old age, and illness. Żmijewski explores the possibilities of art, its functions and social potential. He is the author of “Stosowane Sztuki Społeczne” (Applied Social Arts) manifesto, in which he develops a new formula of social involvement. “In-between” series of photos presents gestures made to refugees who are camping on the streets of Paris. These are bad gestures of rejection, reluctance, and subordination. Pictures say what political mainstream do – “we do not want you” or “know your place.” People are treated like undermen. In his photographs, the artist reflects the visual language of hatred, the language of police register and social exclusion used by the public.
