The results of the competition for the curatorial project for the exhibition in the Polish Pavilion at the 59th International Art Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia
On 28 September 2021, the Jury of the competition for the curatorial project of the exhibition in the Polish Pavilion at the 59th International Art Exhibition in Venice in 2022 convened in a session at Zachęta — National Gallery of Art. The Jury appointed by Professor Piotr Gliński, Minister of Culture, National Heritage and Sport of the Republic of Poland, including: Mateusz Adamkowski, Maciej Aleksandrowicz, Piotr Bernatowicz, Jacek Friedrich, Alicja Knast, Agnieszka Komar-Morawska, Joanna Mytkowska, Joanna Malinowska, Barbara Schabowska, Sylwia Świsłocka-Karwot, Andrzej Szczerski, Jarosław Suchan,Tomasz Wendland, Hanna Wróblewska (President of the Jury), Karolina Ziębińska-Lewandowska – issued the following statement:
Having reviewed the submitted projects and after a long and in-depth discussion, the jury selected in an open two-stage vote the project by Małgorzata Mirga-Tas’s “Re-enchanting the World”, proposed by curators Wojciech Szymański and Joanna Warsza (emblem Bacht) to be carried out. The Jury noted the project’s unusually attractive visual form (opening the pavilion to a wider audience) combined with an original and deliberate ideological concept ‘proposing a new narrative about the constant migration of images and mutual influences between Roma, Polish and European cultures’. The project intertwines in a creative way the artist’s personal experience and local stories with, among others, the tradition of Renaissance wall painting, at the same time combining private iconography with symbolism and allegory from centuries ago.
Teresa Murak’s project ‘Velma’, curated by Łukasz Ronduda and Łukasz Mojsak and submitted under the emblem TM, was selected as the reserve project.
All 33 curatorial projects formally admitted by the Jury to participate in the competition are now availble online (under the “submitted projects” tab).
59th International Art Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia
23 April – 27 November 2022
curator and artistic directorŁ Cecilia Alemani
title: Milk of Dreams
more about the Biennale Arte 2022
Polish participation at the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia is made possible through the financial support of the Ministry of Culture, National Heritage and Sport of the Republic of Poland.
Zachęta — National Gallery of Art in Warsaw, is the organizer of the exhibitions in the Polish Pavilion both for Art and Architecture Biennale, as well as the custodian of the building. The gallery’s director acts as the pavilion commissioner. Poland has its own exhibition pavilion, which is located in Giardini — one of the two main exhibition venues of La Biennale
Info about the competition and the Polish Pavilion: Joanna Waśko j.wasko@zacheta.art.pl
Press inquiries: Joanna Andruszko j.andruszko@zacheta.art.pl
Biographical notes of the winning team
Małgorzata Mirga-Tas is a Polish-Romani artist and activist. In her works, sculptures, paintings, spatial objects and large-format textiles, she addresses anti-Romani stereotypes and engages in building an affirmative iconography of Roma communities. She graduated from the Faculty of Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow (2004). She participated in several dozen individual and group exhibitions, including the 11th Berlin Biennale (2020), the Art Encounters Biennial in Timişoara (2019, 2021), 3rd Autostrada Biennale in Prizren (2021), while her works were displayed at the Moravian Gallery in Brno (2017), the Center of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko (2020), Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw (2020), or Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum in Cologne (2021), among others. She lives and works in Czarna Góra, Poland.
Wojciech Szymański, art historian and art critic, independent curator. Assistant professor at the Institute of Art History, University of Warsaw, author of several dozen articles, editor and author of monographs and exhibition catalogues, principal investigator and researcher in a number of Polish and international scientific projects; since 2019 he has been editor-in-chief of “Ikonotheka” journal. Curator of numerous art shows, with special interest in contemporary Roma art and its presence in the global art world. He curated the following shows featuring the works of Małgorzata Mirga-Tas: Kali Berga (Krakow 2016, Berlin 2017); The Right to Look (Krakow 2018), 29. Exercises in Ceroplastics (Orońsko 2020), Out of Egypt (Białystok 2021). He is a member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA). He lives in Krakow.
Joanna Warsza is an independent curator, editor, and Program Director of CuratorLab at Konstfack University of Arts in Stockholm. Recently she co-curated, together with Övül Ö. Durmusoglu, Die Balkone in Berlin, the 3rd Autostrada Biennale in Kosovo, and the 12th Survival Kit in Riga. She was also the Artistic Director of Public Art Munich 2018, curator of the Georgian Pavilion at the 55th Biennale Arte 2013, head of the public program of Manifesta 10 and associate curator of the 7th Berlin Biennale at the invitation of Artur Żmijewski. Her recent publications include Red Love. A Reader on Alexandra Kollontai (with Maria Lind and Michele Masucci, 2020), and And Warren Niesłuchowski Was There: Guest, Host, Ghost (with Sina Najafi; published by Cabinet Books and Museum of Modern Art Warsaw, 2020). Originally from Warsaw, she lives in Berlin.
Image – Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, Esma Redźepova / Herstories, patchwork, 2021. Fragment of the competition project for the Polish Pavilion at Biennale Arte 2022. Photo: Marcin Tas.