Kuba Bakowski,
The TV Zero Zones - real time video project, Public
Television TVP2, 2004
KUBA
BAKOWSKI
POLAND-U.S. ARTISTS-IN-RESIDENCE EXCHANGE PROGRAM
Residency: SEPTEMBER 1 – DECEMBER
31, 2007
LOCATION ONE
26 Greene Street, New York, NY
10013
ph (212) 334-3347, fax (212) 334-3289
Gallery hours:
Tue.-Sat. 12-6,
Admission: free
Subway:
A, C, E, N, R, 6, J, M,
Z to
Canal Street
Kuba Bakowski works with video, photography, performance, and
projects employing electronic media. Bakowski touches
upon issues of the human condition in contemporary
reality, marked as it is by the omnipresent impact of
the media. He is interested in blurring the border
between the artificial and the natural, between
civilization and nature, confronting the real world in a
subversive way with its media counterpart.
Among his best-known works is TV ZERO
ZONES – a work created in collaboration with Polish
public TV channel TVP2 – in which Bakowski mixed
material prepared by himself with live broadcast. TV
ZERO ZONES was aired thoughout October and November 2004
as part of TVP 2’s end-of-day control screen. When the
day’s programming ended
Bakowski would appear on the background
of the test card: doing simple fitness exercises, riding
about on a rolling deskchair, or performing meditation
yoga. TV ZERO ZONES was the first project in Poland to
use television not just as a transmitter but as raw
material for a work of art.
Bakowski devoted several video works to
the phenomenon of television, creativily using test
cards and the “snow” generated by TV monitors when no
signal is transmitted. He regards both by-products of TV
as revealing its essence when it is not serving as a
transmiiter. The silent test cards, often based on a
circular design suggestive of a mandala, reveal their
potential as catalysts for meditation, a phenomenon
explored by Bakowski in his work, TV MANDALA.
The problem of technology plays an
important role in many of Bakowski’s works. He often
uses a strategy that could be called low-tech
“cyberpunk”: here, a man finds himself in a state of
symbiosis with technology, while at the same time being
an object of its oppression. With Bakowski the world of
technology manifests itself in an unadvanced version, in
the form of simple mechanisms and housekeeping gadgets –
as in his video instalation TEST FLIGHTS, in which two
people try to fly using a vacuum cleaner and and
hair-dryers.
Kuba Bakowski (b. 1971) graduated from the Multimedia
Communications Department of the Fine Arts Academy in
Poznan. He now lives and works in
Warsaw.
He realized solo projects and exhibitions in the
Wuyishan Mountains, China; Daniele Ugolini Contemporary,
Florence
(both 2006); Center of Contemporary Art “Zamek
Ujazdowski”, Warsaw (2006, 2002); Potocka Gallery,
Krakow (2005, 2002); in broadcasts by Polish Public Television TVP
2; Galleria PL, Roma (both 2004); Zacheta National
Gallery of Art,
Warsaw (2003).
His works have been presented at group exhibitions at:
Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw (2007, 2005);
Lodz Biennale 2006; Centre for Contemporary Art “Zamek
Ujazdowski”, Warsaw (2006, 2004); Bunkier Sztuki,
Krakow; Sagospatty Gallery, Roma; National Centre for
Comtemporary Art, Moscow (all in 2005); Villa Manin
Center of Contemporary Art, Italy (2004); Kunst und
Architektur Forum, Essen; Estonian Art Museum, Tallin;
Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius; Museé d'Art Moderne
Saint-Etienne, Saint-Etienne (all in 2004); Museum
Moderner Kunst Wien, Vienna (2003).
Conceived and produced in partnership with Location
One, New York
and A-I-R at the Centre for
Contemporary Art “Ujazdowski Castle”, Warsaw, Poland,
this project has been generously supported by the Trust
for Mutual Understanding, the Ministry of Culture of the
Republic of Poland, and the Polish Cultural Institute,
New York, and was organized
as part of the POLAND-U.S.
ARTISTS-IN-RESIDENCE EXCHANGE PROGRAM, conceived by
the
Polish Cultural Institute, New York.
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