Polish Pavilion

Krzysztof Wodiczko
Guests
2009
video installation
17.17 minutes
courtesy of the artist and Zachęta National Gallery of Art
photo courtesy of Profile Foundation


Krzysztof Wodiczko. Guests
53rd International Art
Exhibition in Venice

opening reception:
June 4th, 2009, at 5 pm,
Giardini di Castello
exhibition open until
November 22nd, 2009

http://www.labiennale.art.pl


Polish Pavilion
Pavilion Commissioner Agnieszka Morawińska
Curator of the Exhibition Bożena Czubak
Assistant Commisioner Małgorzata Osińska


organisation of the exhibition
Zacheta National Gallery of Art
Pl. Małachowskiego 3
00-916 Warsaw, Poland
tel. (+48 22) 556 96 00
press@zacheta.art.pl


The protagonists of Krzysztof Wodiczko's projection in the Polish
Pavilion at the 53rd Venice Art Biennial are immigrants, people who,
not being 'at home', remain 'eternal guests'. 'Strangers', 'others'
are key notions in Wodiczko's artistic practice, be it in the
projections, the Vehicles, or the technologically advanced
Instruments that enable those who, deprived of rights, remain mute,
invisible and nameless to communicate, gain a voice, make a presence
in public space.

The projection, created specially for the Biennial, transforms the
space of the Polish Pavilion into a place where the viewers watch
scenes taking place seemingly outside, behind an illusion of windows,
their projection on the pavilion's windowless walls. The individual
projections, the images of windows projected onto the pavilion's
architecture, open its interior to virtual, but at the same time
real, scenes showing immigrants washing windows, taking a rest,
talking, waiting for work, exchanging remarks about their tough
existential situation, unemployment, problems getting their stay
legalised. The slight blurriness of the images reduces the legibility
of the scenes taking place behind milky glass. Wodiczko plays with the
visibility of immigrants, people who are 'within arm's reach' and, at
the same time, 'on the other side', referring us to their ambivalent
status, their social invisibility. Both sides experience an inability
to overcome the gap separating them. The Biennial visitors are
'guests' here too, of which they are reminded by the images of
immigrants trying, from time to time, to peek inside.

The project, dealing with the multicultural problematique of
alterity, concerns one of the most burning issues of the contemporary
world, globally as well as in the EU, where a discourse of acceptance
and legalisation is accompanied by often restrictive immigration
policies. The author worked with immigrants based in Poland and
Italy, but coming from different countries of the world such as
Chechnya, Ukraine, Vietnam, Romania, Sri Lanka, Libya, Bangladesh,
Pakistan or Morocco.

In his Venice project, Wodiczko combines the unique experience of his
earlier indoor projections, staged in galleries or museums, which
opened the otherwise isolated art world to the outside world, with a
performative nature of his outdoor projections which allowed
participants to animate public buildings with images of their faces
or hands and the sounds of their voices.
For further information please contact: Olga Gawerska (press officer)
press@zacheta.art.pl


Polish participation in the 53rd International Art Exhibition in
Venice is financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage
of the Republic of Poland.

Co-operating Institutions: Adam Mickiewicz Institute; Polish
Institute in Rome; Profile Foundation; Atlas Sztuki; Galerie
Gabrielle Maubrie, Paris; Lelong Gallery, New York; Massachusetts
Institute of Technology

Media Patronage of Zachęta: Gazeta Wyborcza, Polityka, TOK FM, The
Warsaw Voice, Art&Business, Artinfo.pl, Onet.pl, empik