Pawel Althamer: Common Task
Miroslaw Balka: Topography
12 December 2009–7 March 2010
Modern Art Oxford
30 Pembroke Street
Oxford OX1 1BP
Tel. 01865 722733
info [at] modernartoxford.org.uk
PAWEL ALTHAMER
COMMON TASK 12 December 2009 to 7 March 2010
Lower galleries
Pawel Althamer is considered as one of the most innovative artists of his generation. Merging the traditions of sculpture with radical interventions, he orchestrates situations and events involving communities of people in real time and public places. His highly engaging and often devastatingly simple works translate alternative or parallel realities to the ones we experience in every day life.
Common Task takes the form of a science-fiction film in real time. Accompanied by members of his local community in Bródno the artist has embarked on an ongoing journey that has taken them from Warsaw to Brazil, Belgium and Africa. The journey continues to Modern Art Oxford where Althamer is transforming the Gallery’s ground floor into a space station and zone for teleportation in which memories of the group’s travels can be shared. The public also will be invited to take part in the journey in Oxford as part of the Common Task.
This is Pawel Althamer’s first solo exhibition in the UK.
MIROSLAW BALKA
TOPOGRAPHY 12 December 2009 to 7 March 2010
Upper galleries
Over the past ten years the acclaimed sculptor Miroslaw Balka has been making concise and moving video works. Topography introduces this compelling and little known work and offers fresh insight into the work of one of the most important artists working today.
Miroslaw Balka uses video as a repository of visual and thematic material, extending a sculptural language that is rich in associations with history and his native Poland. The body and its limitations, memory, and the space between looking and knowing are recurring themes.
Coinciding with the artist’s commission for The Unilever Series in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern, Topography is presented as a multi-dimensional installation of image, sound and spatial wanderings.
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with essays by James E. Young, Professor of English and Judaic Studies, University of Massachusetts, Amherst and curator Suzanne Cotter.
Pawel Althamer: Common Task and Miroslaw Balka: Topography at Modern Art Oxford are curated by Suzanne Cotter.
Supported by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Warsaw, as part of POLSKA! YEAR, The Henry Moore Foundation, LOT Polish Airlines and Open Art Projects.
EVENTS
Saturday 12 December
Pawel Althamer and the Common Task Group talk about their journey on a walk through the parklands of Oxford. Walk begins at Modern Art Oxford at 11am. FREE Just turn up.
Thursday 28 January
Miroslaw Balka in conversation with Frances Morris, Head of Collections (International Art), Tate, 6pm, FREE to Friends, Booking essential on +44 (0)1865 813800.
Tuesday 16 February
Professor Grzegorz Kowalski from the Sculpture Department of the Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw and teacher of Pawel Althamer, has been invited by The Ruskin School of Drawing & Fine Art to lead a series of workshops and tutorial sessions with students. To inaugurate his visit, Professor Kowalski talks about his work on Tuesday 16 February at Modern Art Oxford. 6pm FREE Booking essential on +44 (0)1865 813800.
Modern Art Oxford, 30 Pembroke Street, Oxford OX1 1BP, Tel. +44 (0)1865 722733, Email. info@modernartoxford.org.uk, www.modernartoxford.org.uk
Open Tuesday to Saturday 10am to 5pm, Late night Thursdays until 8pm, Sunday 12pm to 5pm, Closed Mondays.
Admission Free.
