Martha Rosler
Guide for the Perplexed: How to Succeed in the New Poland
14 February–18 May 2014
Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle
Jazdow 2
Warsaw
Curators: Adam Mazur, Kaja Pawełek
Collaboration: Dorota Grobelna, Mikołaj Iwański, Maciej Łepkowski, Ewa Majewska, Daniel Malone, Judyta Nekanda-Trepka, Jan Sowa, Kuba Szreder and others
Exhibition design: Simone de Iacobis, Małgorzata Kuciewicz / Centrala
Graphic design: Monika Zawadzki
All events are free.
For her first solo exhibition in Poland, American artist and writer Martha Rosler will present her new project Guide for the Perplexed: How to Succeed in the New Poland at Warsaw’s Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle. In conjunction with this site-specific work, a number of Rosler’s seminal works will also be on view, including a selection of her photomontages, video works, and photographs.
Rosler’s work often centers on socio-political issues, generally seen through the prism of everyday life, especially from the point of view of women. Her engagement with such contemporary grassroots movements as the anti-war movement and Occupy Wall Street is well known.
Guide for the Perplexed: How to Succeed in the New Poland is centered on life in contemporary Poland. Meetings, discussions, and performances will be held for the duration of the exhibition in one of the CCA’s main galleries. Visitors are invited to participate in Town Hall-style public meetings facilitated by activists, educators, and experts. These discussions will be held in and around kiosks, designed by Rosler and Centrala, devoted to the following issues: Gender, or How to be a woman in the new Poland; Housing; Labour; Debt; How to be an artist in the new Poland; Environment and Industry; Migration; What should be placed inside the new Jewish museum?; and Should there Be a Polish colony on Mars? (Polish National Identity). The program of events will continue for the show’s duration, and visitors are encouraged to continue to post comments, reactions, and suggestions on the “Democracy Wall” running the length of the gallery. The task at hand is to confront existing processes—including economic, cultural, and ideological—that shape social and political reality. The open space of the exhibition has the capacity to become a site of formulation for different answers, collective and individual, in the form of debates, lectures, informal counseling, and referrals.
The exhibition and project reflect Rosler’s long-standing interest in connecting and exploring feminist, anti-war, and social themes. Her practice has always included three conjoined strategies: exhibition, critical discourse, and education—encompassing several generations of artists and activists.For almost forty years, Rosler has lectured widely and has taught at several institutions in the United States, Canada, and Europe, notably at the Städelschule in Frankfurt and at Rutgers University in the New York area.
This exhibition finds its place among a continuing series of presentations by distinguished American artists who link feminism with conceptual art. This series has so far presented works by Mary Kelly, Silvia Kolbowski, Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Kara Walker,Yoko Ono, and others. The exhibition is accompanied by a publication of selected essays by Rosler, newly translated into Polish.
