zbigniew libera

Zbigniew Libera
Liberation
Liberation (Bush’s dream), 2003
series of staged photographs, published in „Przekroj” weekly magazine (13.04.2003).
Liberation (Bush’s dream), 2003
series of staged photographs, published in „Przekroj” weekly magazine (13.04.2003)
Positives
from Positives series (from the left):
Workers, 2002, photograph, 120 x 155 cm
Residents, 2003, photograph, 120 x 180 cm
Cyclists, 2002, photograph, 120 x 180 cm
Defeat in a cross-country, 2003, photograph, 120 x 180 cm
from Positives series
Che. Next picture, 2003, photograph, 120 x 155 cm
from Positives series
Workers, 2002, photograph, 120 x 155 cm
from Positives series: Nepal, 2003, photograph, 170 x 120 cm
Photo Albums
Photo albums, 2005
Set of 6 albums, 15 x 25 x 5 cm each,
containing 10 x 15 cm photo prints.
The artist photographed every single picture from a chosen
issue of a daily newspaper and collected them in a standard
photo album. Each album contains photographs from
a different newspaper.
Photo albums, 2005
Broniewski, 2005,
c-print on dibond,
105 x 120 cm
The staged photograph
devoted to Wladyslaw
Broniewski (1897-1962),
the Polish communist poet.
The artist’s contribution
to „Broniewski” project
at Raster gallery
- all participants of the
project (artists, musicians
and curators) were invited
to act in this photograph.
Repubica Christiana, 1997, drawing, 42 x 60 cm
Christus ist mein Leben [Christ is my Life], 1990
welded metal, 180 x 500 cm
LEGO Concentration Camp
LEGO Concentration Camp, 1996
7 box LEGO set, edition of 3
LEGO Concentration Camp, 1996,
photograph, 20 x 30 cm
LEGO Concentration Camp, 1996
Shape of cardboard box, archival print, edition of 10
LEGO Concentration Camp, 1996, photograph, 20 x 30 cm
LEGO Concentration Camp, 1996
Shape of cardboard box, archival print, edition of 10
LEGO Concentration Camp, 1996, photograph, 20 x 30 cm
Eroica
Eroica, 1998, 100 bronze figures and 8 boxes
Figure: h 6,4 cm; Box: 20 x 30,2 x 14,6 cm
Toy soldier-sized women figures
untitled [soccer players], 1997
re-shaped toy soldier figures and re-painted boxes
Dolls
The doll you love to undress, 1998
six dolls and boxes, 53 x 17 x 13 cm each
Ken’s Aunt, 1994
24 dolls (with brown and blond hair) and boxes, 32 x 8 x 5 cm each
You can shave the baby, 1995
Ten dolls and boxes, 56 x 40,6 x 25,4 cm each
Delivery Bed. Play Kit for Girls
Delivery Bed. Play Kit for Girls, 1996, set of 3 delivery beds + advertisement
Delivery beds based on girl’s body proportions
Body Master
Grave stone, 2002, cardboard, old decorative paper, 87 x 66 x 11 cm
Body Master: a play kit for children, 1994-1995, 115 x 46 x 71 cm
Suitable body builder set based on 7-9 years old boy’s body proportions
Body Master: a play kit for children, 1994-1995
two machines: 2x 115 x 46 x 71 cm and two posters
Suitable body builder set based on 7-9 years old boy’s body proportions
Universal
Penis
Expander
Universal Penis Expander, 1995
machine: 220 x 180 x 112 cm
stand, poster and User’s Manual (brochure)
Untitled, 1994, drawing, 42 x 60 cm
Rubber penis head with extra long foreskin, sketch drawing
Placebo, 1995
550 packets containing 4 suppositories each, 1,2 x 6,4 x 8,9 cm
A pseudo-product from the pharmaceutical empire, a remedy for everything
Blood drops, 1998, plastic bag
Blood drops, 1998, photograph, 30 x 30 cm
The artists produced plastic blood drops
Blood Drops
Blood drops, 1998, drawing, 42 x 60 cm
Drawings
untitled, 1997, drawing, 42 x 60 cm
untitled, 1997, drawing, 42 x 60 cm
untitled, 1997, drawing, 42 x 60 cm
Art Robot, 1997, drawing, 42 x 60 cm
Untitled, 1994, drawing, 40 x 60 cm
How To Train The Girls
How to train the girls, 1987, 20 min, video stills
The video was created as a result of artist’s re-working of some video material he found in his home video collection. It presents a four-year-old girl who is being instructed on some aesthetic
rites of self-creation by an elderly woman. The peculiar slowing down of the image carries this fragment of human existence beyond the moment when it was registered. The video presents
the sculpting of character, created not in the present moment but in a particular delayed time - the phase of active imagination.
Hermaphrodite, 1982, series of 24 photogrphs
Intimate Rites - Mystical Perserverance
Intimate Rites, 1984, video stills
„Intimate Rites” and „Mystical Perseverance” were created after the artist took over care of his
elderly grandmother, Regina G, who was so old and sick that she could neither live independently nor communicate. With devotion, and for more than two years, the artist fed her, washed her,
changed her diapers, and put her to bed. The film „Intimate Rites” examines the ultimate failure
of the self and the reification that awaits each one of us through aging and death. Simultaneously,
however, it is also a story of the ultimate victory of the self, expressed through the artist’s caring
gestures toward Regina G in the selfless gift of love.
Intimate Rites, 1984, video still
„Mystical Perseverance”, 1984, video stills and installation view
„Mystical Perseverance” shows Regina G monotonously and
unconsciously performing the simple activity of turning a chamber pot.
The activity originated in Regina G’s ritual of saying the rosary prayer
with her rosary beads. This ritual eventually took another form, that of
rotating the rosary around her neck. After a time, Regina G. changed
the direction that the rosary was rotating, causing the rosary to loop
around her neck. So the rosary, as a dangerous thing, was taken
away. In its place Regina G. seized on the first object at hand, which
happened to be a chamber pot. The recorded activity consists of the
persistent turning of the pot around its axis, while at the same time
retaining its primary function. Thus, according to the need, it becomes
either a medium or a receptacle for excrements.
Domestic performance
Domestic performance, 1982, series of 6 b&w photographs
Libera is one of the most highly regarded contemporary
visual artists in Poland. In 1979 he joined a Łódź-based
avant-garde group of artists. In 1982 he was imprisoned
under Martial Law for the illegal printing of political
booklets. In the mid-1980s he was one of the first artists
in Poland to create video. But it was his „Correcting
Devices” - objects designed to show how individuals are
formed in the socialization process - that launched his
career internationally in the 1990s. Works from this series
were presented in some of the most prestigious venues in
Europe and the Americas, including XLV Venice Biennale
(1993), MoCA, Chicago (1995), the Biennale Sao Paulo
(1996), Jeu De Paume in Paris (2000), Moderna Musset in
Stockholm (1999), and Hamburger Banhof in Berlin (2000),
among others. A work from Libera’s series, „Lego: Concentration Camp”, acquired by the Jewish Museum in New
York, later became the center of its challenging exhibition
„Mirroring Evil” (2002).
Recently, pursuing his interest in collective memory,
and particularly in the phenomenon of the so-called
“post-views” of memory, Libera has created a new body
of works: two series of photographs „Positives” and „Masters”, widely shown in Europe, which refer to problems
of creating public opinion through the means of press and
problems of medialization in general.
Libera’s addressing of education and normalization in an
era of mass production - relating directly to Michel Foucault’s theory about society and culture as the products
of a given system; his tracing of commercial forms of
control in a world driven by the forces of production and
consumption, as well as the medialization of collective
memory - all these have made him a legend of critical art
and one of the most recognized Polish artists. As Libera is
capable of addressing important surrealist projects from
a feminist perspective, he is also often regarded as one of
the most important Polish feminist artists.
ZBIGNIEW LIBERA
Born 1959 in Pabianice. Lives and works in Warsaw.
RASTER
UL. HOŻA 42/8, 00-516 WARSZAWA, POLAND
WWW.RASTER.ART.PL
PRINTING: DRUKARNIA INTERNETOWA STUDIOUH.COM
selected solo exhibitions:
selected group exhibitions:
2006
- Zbigniew Libera: Work from 1984-2004, University of Michigan,
School of Art & Design, Ann Arbor, USA
- Co robi łączniczka, Bielska BWA Gallery, Bielsko-Biala, PL
(with Darek Foks)
2006
- Faites Vos Jeux! Kunst und Spiel seit DADA, Museum fur Gegenwartskunst, Siegen
- Broniewski, BWA Gallery, Zielona Gora, PL
- W stronę innego. Obserwacje i interwencje, Osrodek Propagandy Sztuki,
Lodz, PL
2005
- Photographic Atlases and Other Publications,
Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, PL
- Co robi łączniczka, Kronika Gallery, Bytom, PL (with Darek Foks)
- Galerie Anne de Villepoix, Paris, F (with Martha Rosler)
2004
- Positives, Casino Luxembourg, Luxembourg
- Masters and Positives, a.r.t. gallery, Plock, PL
- Masters and Positives, State Gallery of Art, Sopot, PL
- Masters and Positives, Atlas Sztuki Gallery, Lodz, PL
2000
- The other type of prison, American-European Art Associates,
New York, USA
1998
- Correct Me If I’m Wrong, Guy McIntyre Gallery, New York, USA
1997
- Gallerie Wang, Oslo, NOR
- Gallerie Faurschou, Copenhagen, DK
1996
- Corrective facilities, Centre for Contemporary Art
Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, PL
1993
- Works with electricity, Na Mazowieckiej Gallery, Warsaw, PL
1992
- Laboratorium Gallery, Centre for Contemporary Art
Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, PL
2005
- Poles Apart: Contemporary Polish Art, Rubell Family Collection, Miami,
USA
- W stronę innego. Obserwacje i interwencje, BWA Gallery, Katowice, PL
- Second Present, Trafo Gallery, Budapest, H
- Broniewski, Raster, Warsaw, PL
- 1st Exhibition of the Regional Collection of Contemporary Art in Szczecin,
National Museum, Szczecin, PL
- post_modellismus, Krinzinger Projekte, Vienna, A
- International Biennale of Contemporary Art 2005, The National Gallery,
Prague, CZ
- Revenge on realism, Krinzinger Projekte, Vienna, A
- Falsche Erwartungen, Kunsthalle Darmstadt, D
- Compton Verney, Warwickshire, UK
- Potential. Contemporary Art Collections for the Museum…, Metropolitan
building, Warsaw, PL
- How to talk about contemporary art?, Arsenal Gallery, Bialystok, PL
- Faites Vos Jeux! Kunst und Spiel seit DADA, Kunstmuseum Lichtenstein,
Vaduz; Akademie der Kuenste, Berlin, D
- Sicht der Dinge, Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie, Regensburg, D
2004
- From My Window. Artists and Their Teritorries, Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris, F
- Memoires du temps de l’immaturite, Passage de Retz, Paris, F
- Paisatges Mediatics, fundacio la Caixa, Lleida; Tarragona, ESP
- Under The Red & White Flag, New Art from Poland, Estonian Art Museum, Tallin, EST; Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius, LT; Nizhny Novgorod
branch of the National Centre for Contemporary Art, Arsenal, Niznhy Novgorod, RU; Nizhny Tagil Museum of Fine Arts, Niznhy Tagil, RU; National
Centre for Contemporay Arts, Moscow, RU
2002
- Mirroring Evil, The Jewish Museum, New York, USA
2001
- Irreligia, Museum Atelier 340, Brusseles, B
- Anteprima Bovisa Milano Europa 2000, Mediolan, I
- The Negotiators of Art, Bunker Sztuki Gallery, Cracow, PL
- Cold War, Theatrical Association Laznia, Cracow, PL
- In Freiheit/Endlich, National Museum, Warsaw, PL
Zbigniew Libera: Work from 1984-2004, University of Michigan, School of Art & Design, Ann Arbor, USA, 2006
2000
- Scene 2000, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, PL
- In Freiheit/Endlich, Staatliche Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden, D
- Postindustrial Sorrow, Kunsthalle, Wiesbaden, D
- After the Wall”, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, D
- What, how and for whom”, HDLU, Zagreb, HR
- L’Autre moitie de l’Europe, Jeu De Paume, Paris, F
1999
- Aspects I Positions, MMKSLW, Vienna, A
- After the Wall, Moderna Musset, Stockholm, S
- The Negotiators of Art, Centre for Contemporary Art Laznia, Gdansk, PL
- A conceptual reflection in Polish art. Current practices, mobile horizons,
Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, PL
- Generations. Polish art at the end/beginning of the century, Manege
- Central Exhibition Hall, Pushkin Gallery 10, St. Petersburg, RUS
- Rondo, Ludwig Museum, Budapest, H
- Pink for boys, blue for girls, NGBK, Berlin, D
- Absence I Presence, Nash Gallery, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis;
Persuasion, Lombard and
Fried Gallery, New York, USA
1998
- At the time of writing, Centre of Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle,
Warsaw, PL
- Medialization”, Edsvik Konst, Stockholm, S
1996
- The Thing Between, Technische Sammlungen der Stadt, Dresden, D
1995
- Antibodies, Centre of Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, PL
- Beyond Belief, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
- Z. Libera, M. Przyjemska, R. Stańczak, Skuc Galerija, Lubljana, SLO
- New I’s For New Years, Kuenstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, D
- Universalis, 23th Biennale, Sao Paulo, BRA
1994
- Europa, Europa, Kunst und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik
Deutschland, Bonn, D
- Videospaces, State Gallery of Art, Sopot, PL
- Medienbiennale - Minima Media, Kunsthalle Elsterpark, Leipzig, D
1993
- Unvollkommen, Museum Bochum, Bochum, D
- Emergency, Aperto ‘93, XLV Biennale di Venezia, Venice, I
1992
- Mystical Perseveration and Rose, State Gallery of Art, Sopot, PL
- Current situation 3:3, Otso Gallery, Espoo, FIN
1991
- Double identity, Landesmuseum, Wiesbaden, D
- Kunst Europa, Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn, D
- Bakunin in Dresden, Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle,
Warsaw, PL
1990
- Bakunin in Dresden, Kunstpalast, Duesseldorf, D
- Querspure Videofestival, Linz, A
- AVE Festival, Arnheim, NL
1988
- Now is now, Wyspa Gallery, Gdańsk, PL
1987
- What’s up?, Norblin Facilities, Warsaw, PL