ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie

Józef Robakowski is considered one of the most important exponents of Polish experimental film and a key figure of the Polish avant-garde. In a premier solo-exhibition in Germany, which shows him in dialog with other artists, Robakowski not only appears as filmmaker and fine artist: what also becomes clearly evident are his activities and influence as initiator, curator and organizer of artist’s groups, exhibitions and artistic events. The exhibition at the ZKM | Museum of Contemporary Art, displays those of his films and video works as well as archival material focusing on relational and collaborative work, such as his cooperation with Paul Sharits, which have been of major importance in the artist’s creative output since the 1960s.

Engaging in dialog with other artists while at the same time rendering this visible in and through art has been one of the key aspects in Robakowski’s (*1939, Poznań) oeuvre from the 1960s. With this as its point of departure, the exhibition covers, above all, the wealth of Robakowski’s ideas and methods in his collaboration with other artists.

The political dimension of Robakowski’s art is revealed with pieces that were produced during the period of martial law in Poland (1981–1983). Robakowski is shown as a creator of experimental work responding to the specificities of context, working outside the official museum and gallery system to present politically critical works. Important issues of trust, collective expressions, and shared experiences are shown through activities and actions initiated by the Exchange Gallery established by the artist in his own apartment in Łódź in 1978.
The exhibition brings together films and video works such as “Market,” 1970 (in collaboration with Ryszard Meissner and Tadeusz Junak); “Attention Light!,” 1981–2004 (collaboration with Paul Sharits and Wieslaw Michalak); “Art is Power,” 1985 (music by Slovenian avant-garde group Laibach) and “Oratorio for Katarzyna Kobro,” 2011. Robakowski’s curatorial models are represented through documents and photographs showing the activities of the “Workshop of the Film Form” and photographic documentation from the exhibition “Lochy Manhattanu” (Łódź, 1989). The exhibition also presents a selection of books, catalogs, and ephemera produced by and drawn from the collection of the Exchange Gallery, Łódź.

Curators: Michał Jachuła and Tobi Maier

Partners of the exhibition: Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Warsaw; CEC ArtsLink, New York; MINI/Goethe-Institut Curatorial Residencies Ludlow 38, New York; Arsenal Gallery, Białystok

The exhibition was previously shown at MINI/Goethe-Institut Curatorial Residencies Ludlow 38, New York and Arsenal Gallery, Białystok.

On the occasion of the exhibition, the trilingual publication “Józef Robakowski”
 (Polish/English/German) has been published in collaboration 
with Spector Books, Leipzig (ed. by Michał Jachuła and Tobi Maier), with contributions by Barbara London, Maria Morzuch, and Marielle Nitoslawska. 150 pages, 18 EUR.

More Information: http://on1.zkm.de/zkm/stories/storyReader$8041