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Artur Żmijewski, Joanna Warsza, Voina

Curator and associate curators - biographies

Artur Żmijewski

Artur Żmijewski, born in 1966 in Warsaw (Poland), works almost exclusively with the media of photography and film. He is particularly interested in the power of art and its relation to politics. From an almost anthropological viewpoint he investigates social norms, morality and representations of power in today’s society and the effects that art have on it.

Żmijewski studied in the sculpture class of Professor Grzegorz Kowalski at the Warsaw Art Academy from 1990 to 1995 as well as at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam in 1999. His work has been internationally shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions.

In 2005 he represented Poland at the 51st Art Biennale in Venice. He is member of the Polish political movement "Krytyka Polityczna" and the art director of the magazine of the same name.

Artur Żmijewski lives and works in Warsaw.

© Photo: Zofia Waslicka

Joanna Warsza

Joanna Warsza, born in 1976, is a curator on the cusp of the performing and visual arts. She graduated from the Warsaw Theater Academy and completed a postgraduate course at the University of Paris 8 dance department.

She is a founder of the independent platform Laura Palmer Foundation (www.laura-palmer.pl). Joanna Warsza has worked mostly in the public realm, curating projects that examine social and political agendas, such as the invisibility of the Vietnamese community in Warsaw, the phenomenon of Israeli Youth Delegations to Poland, or the legacy of post-Soviet architecture in the Caucasus.

Together with Krzysztof Wodiczko she runs a seminar on conflict, trauma and art at the Warsaw Higher School for Social Psychology as well as on the performativity in contemporary culture. She has realized projects with Berlin theater Hebbel am Ufer, Warsaw Museum of Modern Art, the AICA Armenia, the GeoAir Tbilisi, the Centre Pompidou or Biennale de Belleville, both in Paris, among others. She is an editor of Stadium-X – A Place That Never Was.

Joanna Warsza lives and works in Berlin and Warsaw.

© Photo: Anna Eckold

Voina

Oleg Vorotnikov (a.k.a. Vor), Natalya Sokol (a.k.a. Kozljonok or Koza), Leonid Nikolajew (a.k.a. Leo the Fucknut) and Kasper Nienagliadny Sokol

The art collective Voina (in English "war") from Russia was founded in 2005 by Oleg Vorotnikov and Natalya Sokol. Voina engages in street action art that is directed against the Russian authorities. Their actions are regularly joined by a large group of anonymous activists. Numerous lawsuits have been filed against the group and its activists. Most recently Natalya Sokol and her son Kasper have been arrested for several hours in mid-October 2011.
Oleg Vorotnikov, Natalya Sokol, Leonid Nikolajew and Kasper decline the use of money and live in St. Petersburg without a permanent home. Their creed is, as Natalya Sokol declares: "The artist who denies political awareness is just a designer."

Further information: http://en.free-voina.org

© Photo: Unknown

 

(From press information)

27 April - 1 July 2012

Berlin, Germany

Director:
Gabriele Horn

Curator:
Artur Żmijewski

Associate Curators:
Voina (Oleg Vorotnikov, Natalya Sokol, Leonid Nikolajew, Kasper Nienagliadny Sokol)
Joanna Warsza

 

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