Politics: I don’t like it, but it likes me
13 April–2 June 2013
Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art
Ul. Jaskolcza 1
80-767 Gdansk, Poland
Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art presents the exhibitions within the framework of a long-term project titled Cities on the Edge.
Artists: Jairo Alfonso, Alexandre Arrechea, Tomasz Bajer, Carlos Boix, Brumaria, Los Carpinteros, Fernando Sánchez Castillo, Jeannette Chavez, Democracia, Leandro Feal, Nicolas Grospierre, Diango Hernández, Agnieszka Kalinowska, Tomasz Kozak, Hamlet Lavastida, Glenda León, Glexis Novoa, Daniel Silvo, Piotr Wyrzykowski
Curators: Dermis P. Leon (Curatorial Bureau), Agnieszka Kulazińska
Screening: Politically, about Cuba, Curator: Madeleine Navarro Mena; supported by Lech Walesa Institute in Warsaw
22–26 May 2013
Centre for Contemporary Art Laznia (Jaskółcza 1, Gdańsk), Krytyka Polityczna (ul. Nowe Ogrody 35, Gdansk)
The title of the exhibition, Politics: I don’t like it, but it likes me, was borrowed from the text of a song by a Cuban group called Porno para Ricardo. The musicians suggest that, whether we want it or not, we are immersed in politics. Is this opinion valid only in Cuba?
Politics shapes our everyday life. This statements sounds like a cliché, for we seem to be aware of its influence on our lives. However, this fact is especially poignant at present, in the times of crisis. It seems to lose its power at the time of prosperity. What is the role of art in the process of transition?
The exhibition Politics: I don’t like it, but it likes me is an ironic statement on history; it reveals political marriages with everyday life. The exhibition offers an ample platform for the discussion on different issues concerning Cuban, Polish and Spanish transition in their social processes, inward and outward identity construction and representation in this context of displacement where Capitalism has become the only system.
The exhibition includes a selection of Cuban films curated by Madeleine Navarro Mena. The screening is composed of films and documentaries, which are crucial to enhance the understanding of the last 53 years of Cuban history.
Bogota. City on the edge.
22 November 2013–30 January 2014
CCA Laznia II, Strajku Dokerow 5, Gdansk
Artists: Jaime Avila, Alberto Lezaca de Paz, Andrés Londoño Adriana Salazar
Curators: John Angel Rodriguez, Sylwia Krasoń
The exhibition presents Bogota city through the artists’ eyes, which gaze focuses on their experience living and working in the capital of the country. Bogota has emerged in the last decade as a one of the megacities in Latin America with the highest development and growth index, characterized by a multicultural complexity coexisting with enormous problems of social gaps and security. The history of the country, as well as the social and family lives have implicit the long period of violence, the drug mafia presence, and the corrupted political ambiance, that still remain as unsolved problems. The contrast is marked by the cultural ambiance that have made of Bogota that “paradise for the intellectual spirit,” with freedom of speech and multiple origin voices, the well-known language purity reflected in the production by authors like Garcia Marquez, and the rich natural resources and environmental development. The presented artwork reveals the social and urban power of the city: daily life, channels of communications and rhythm of the urban common life. Artists raise questions about how the city dwellers cope with errors and imperfections of a system. The system in where an urban development is a fiction and where the structure of power is unpredictable and beyond imagination.
Magda Mellin: What happened behind this wall
Anahita Razmi: White Wall Teheran, Roof Piece Teheran
6 November–6 December 2013
The exhibitions are presented in the framework of a long-term project titled Cities On The Edge, in which the ‘edgy’ position of Gdańsk is explored. The project’s point of departure is the meaning of word ‘edgy, ‘which describes contemporary culture and the states of many contemporary cities being.
The project was supported by The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Republic of Poland.
