Wladyslaw Kazmierczak

Wladyslaw Kazmierczak is a Polish performance artist and curator. He was born in Psary, Great Poland on June 27, 1951.

1970s

Kazmierczak studied at the Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków (1971–76) under Jonasz Stern. He began creating performance art actions in the 1974 performance "I love DADA...Help! Flight Out of Time: Stone 1" at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. After 1976 he produced site specific performances like "If I think about Marcel Duchamp and performance I love DADA...Help!" At that time he also performed on the streets and public spaces. His first gallery performance was "In the run" at the "Pryzmat" Gallery in Kraków in 1979.

1980s

In the early 1980s Kazmierczak produced a number of political performances in Poland, for instance "Repressive Tolerance". The imposition of martial law in Poland on December 13, 1981, led to the closure of unofficial galleries. Kazmierczak's last performance before this date was the piece, "If I think about totalitarianism, If I think about Marcel Duchamp". After 1981 he performed from time to time, individually or with the KONGER group, but not in state galleries. He performed work in Darmstadt, Germany and Paris.

1990s

In 1991 he became director of the Baltycka Galeria Sztuki Wspolczesnej (Baltic Gallery of Contemporary Art) in Słupsk, Poland. Since 1993 he has also been a curator of the oldest performance art event in Poland the International Performance Art Festival "Castle of Imagination" [ [http://www.performance.art.pl/ Castle of Imagination Web site] ] taking place annually in various locations in Poland since 1993.

In 1995 he performed in Tokyo, Nagano, Quebec, Paris and Pusan in Korea. He has also performed in important performance art festivals in Rome, Glasgow, Belfast, Paris, Dublin, Seoul, Budapest, Berlin, Mexico City, Vilnius, New York City, Tokyo, Pusan, Munchen, Kraków, Limerick and in many other places.

In 1997 he began performing with Ewa Rybska. The duo Rybska & Kazmierczak have performed over 120 works in 20 countries: Slovakia, Italy, Germany, Czech Republic, Belarus, Ireland, Slovenia, Mexico, Indonesia, Canada, Korea, France, USA, Israel, Finland, Estonia, Spain, Sweden, Great Britain and Poland. Recent performance pieces include: "Pulp Fiction" based on Tarantino's film, "Ecstasy" which was related to techno culture, "Modern Talking" a piece that analyzed the relation between modernism and postmodernism, "Body & East" that considered the new situation of the body after the fall of communist ideology.

2000s

In 2003 Kazmierczak cancelled an exhibition of the work of controversial Polish artist Dorota Nieznalska at his Baszta Czarownic (Witches' Tower) gallery in Słupsk after pressure from a local politician, Jerzy Barbarowicz. [ [http://www.tol.cz/look/CER/printf.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=14&NrIssue=53&NrSection=2&NrArticle=10814&ST1=body&ST_T1=cer&ST_AS1=1&ST_max=1 "Transitions Online", October 23, 2003.] ]

In 2006, after political attacks from the local League of Polish Families MP he relocated to the UK with Ewa Rybska.

References

ee also

* [http://www.kazmierczak.artist.pl/ Wladyslaw Kazmierczak's Web site]