Polish! Contemporary Art From Poland at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin

The current exhibition at Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin has its focus on contemporary art from Poland. The participating artists are Michal Budny, Rafal Bujnowski, Hubert Czerepok, Slawomir Elsner, Michal Jankowski, Katarzyna Kozyra, Pawel Ksiazek, Dominik Lejman, Roman Lipski, Piotr Uklanski, Urban Art (Marek Pisarsky + Anne Peschken), and Artur Zmijewski.

“We’ve remained strangers to each other. That is why we have this constant yearning for normality. What do we know about our neighbors? Are there conflicts? How does each of us reconcile himself with his background? What interests Poles and Germans about each other?

An exhibition titled “Polish! Contemporary Art from Poland”, which revolves around certain ideas of unquestioned traditions and patriotic wishful thinking, accepts the risk of failure. All over the world, religious identities are intensifying. Beyond that, processes of societal transformation outside of Europe are stimulating the formation of national identity, which in turn has effects on societal developments within Europe.

The artists of this exhibition are cosmopolitan and reflect what is not self-evident about their own identities. Instead of social-scientific generalities, what awaits us in the exhibition are objects, video installations, and paintings in which artists with wit and intelligence explore constructions of identity on the one hand and traumatic denials of identity on the other.” (Excerpt from the press release).

Polish! Contemporary Art from Poland at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin. Opening reception, October 20, 2011. Video by Astrid Gleichmann.

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