Hostia and Déjà vu | Lidia Krawczyk, Wojtek Kubiak

Artist

Lidia Krawczyk
Wojtek Kubiak

ABOUT EXHIBITION

The exhibition consists of two projects realized in 2007 and 2008, which together can be a story about old and modern Europe. This is a subjective narrative about our experience and perception of the East and the West, as well as the space at the intersection of modernist and postmodern identity. The Host * project creates a series of dozens of images. It was created during the scholarship stay in Piešťany in Slovakia in 2007.
Inspired by the history of the city, and in particular the history of the SPA SPA. Direct inspiration for the painted performances were archival photographs placed in the guest book found in the city library. They document the period of splendor of the spa, falling at the turn of the 19th and 20th century. Visitors to the SPA in Pszczszczany appointed groups that in the given period had power not only in the executive sense, but also in the normative sense. It was a time when regulations concerning disciplinary techniques characterizing modern society appeared.

The Déjà vu project was created during a scholarship stay in Paris in 2008. It deals with the issues of traveling, sightseeing, wandering, watching. He appeals to the problem of dispersed, volatile perception and experiencing reality. The project has been divided into several thematic cycles, it concerns both visiting the city and moving inside the galleries and museums. This trip is also a peculiar journey through the history of art. In our work, we tried to capture the most repetitive and canonical behaviors. The project is fun with pop-cultural images, academic icons and French culture, filled with racism and xenophobia.

Lidia Krawczyk (born 1979, Krakow) is a graduate of the Institute of Audiovisual Arts and Postgraduate Gender Studies at the Jagiellonian University. He deals with feminist criticism. She is a co-editor of the “uniGENDER” internet magazine. He lives and works in Krakow.

Wojtek Kubiak (born 1979, Krakow) is a graduate of the Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, where he has been an assistant since 2003.
In 2005 he became the laureate of the Scholarship of the Mayor of the City of Krakow. Winner of the Scholarship of the Minister of Culture (1999, 2003/2004), Grazelli Scholarship (2007) and Young Poland Scholarship (2008).

They started joint projects in 2004. They create paintings, photographs and video. The space of their search is the issues of gender, sexuality, social power structures and hegemony. Passive project. Family ties were honored at the Triennial of Painting Fish Eye 4 in Słupsk. In 2007 they received the Grand Prix at the 38th Biennale of Bielska Jesień Painting.
So far, they have taken part in dozens of exhibitions, including: Becoming, Bunkier Sztuki, Kraków (2008); Genderqueer Revolution, UFA, Warsaw (2008); Blankly, Perfect Summer, vertexList, New York (2008); Genderqueer (under construction), Otwarta Pracownia, Kraków (2008); Bunker of Art Collection, Stary Browar Gallery, Poznań (2008); Jeune Création Européenne, New Talents in the European Art Scene, Montrouge, France (2007); (im) mortal love, Supermarket of art IV, Warsaw (2007); Re (ko) nesans of painting, Górnośląskie Centrum Kultury, Katowice / Bałtycka Galeria Sztuki Współczesnej, Słupsk (2007); Idolatrie, Klima Bocheńska Gallery, Warsaw (2007); Erasing, Galeria Krytyków Pokaz, Warsaw (2007); Passive. Family ties, nova gallery, Krakow (2006);
Witch Ple Ple. Post-feminist travesty travesties, DLA Gallery, Toruń (2006); Form is emptiness – emptiness is a form, GCK, Galeria Sektor I, Katowice (2006).