The Forgetting of Proper Names
Tuesday saw the opening of The Forgetting of Proper Names at Calvert 22 in the East End. Calvert 22 in a non for profit organization, founded by Nona Materkova, that provides a platform for contemporary art from Russia and Eastern Europe. The present exhibition showcases the work of three emerging artists from Poland – Anna Molska, Agnieszka Polska, and Wojciech Bąkowski.
The exhibition comes at a time of growth for the Polish art scene. In the past two years the Tate, the Barbican, and the Whitechapel Gallery have held solo shows of Polish artists (Miroslaw Balka’s How It Is, Robert Kusmirowski’s Bunker, and Wilhem Sasnal respectively) highlighting the strength of contemporary Polish art.
It was the first time I attended an opening at Calvert 22 – I heard about The Forgetting of Proper Names from many sources which underscors the growing interest in Polish artists – so I didn’t really know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised by the level of professionalism of the institution, the quality of the works, as well as, the high attendance rate. The exhibition features mainly videos by Molska and Polska, as well as, installations and a performance piece by Bąkowski. Molska’s work influenced by the conceptualist tradition is based on filmed performances. I was most drawn to Jesus Loves Me, a short black and white video featuring the artist herself. The artist sings to the lyrics of Jesus Loves Me by Coco Rosie and slowly disintegrates on the screen. The song is composed of very harsh lyrics that contrast the innocent appearance of the artist. She is stressing the juxtaposition between appearance and the inconvenient reality. Polska examines the themes of memory, reminiscence, and forgetting through monochromatic videos that are composed of archival images and her own animations. In Plunderer’s Dream the artist has combined black and white images of landscapes and people, in relaxing scenes of an impressionist feel, with her own animations of contemporary still lifes. The grouping of these images, although odd when described, work in perfect harmony. Bąkowski’s work is influence by memories of his childhood – social and political unrest, as well as, punk-rock subcultures. During the opening he presented a performance piece, Attention Fission, where after asking the audience for complete silence he proceeded to throw an old tape recorder on the floor. He then went onto to replay the sound in different mixes via other older tape recorders, highlighting how the energy of an event can be repeated over and over. The artist after switching off the lights disappeared and left the audience pondering over his performance – I think that is the key aim of performance pieces to raise emotions and engage the audience into a dialogue.
AGNIESZKA POLSKA – PLUNDERERS DREAM
Along with the exhibition the institution has produced a beautiful catalogue (which they have cleverly editioned making it into an ‘artwork’) with scholarly essays by the two curators, Lina Džuverović and Dominik Czechowski, and a smaller booklet of high quality colour images. Calvert 22 is hosting a number of lectures and workshops around The Forgetting of Proper Names focusing on the Polish art scene as a whole.
I urge everyone to visit this exhibition and to generally follow the upcoming events as I believe Calvert 22 is in tune with the future of the contemporary art world.
With best wishes,
Eleni Markopoulioti
For further information visit http://calvert22.org/
Posted on January 29, 2012 by Editors
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