Artur Żmijewski (born 26 May 1966 in Warsaw) is a Polish visual artist, filmmaker and photographer. During the years of 1990–1995 he studied at Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. He is an author of short video movies and photography exhibitions, which were shown all over the world. Since 2006 he is artistic editor of the "Krytyka Polityczna".
His solo show If It Happened Only Once It's As If It Never Happened was at "Kunsthalle Basel" in 2005, the same year in which he represented Poland at the 51st Venice Biennale. He has shown in Documenta 12 (2007), and Manifesta 4 (2002); Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art, San Francisco (2012, 2005); National Gallery of Art Zacheta, Warsaw (2005); Kunstwerke, Berlin (2004); CAC, Vilnius (2004); "Moderna Museet", Stockholm (1999). Earlier this year he presented Democracies at "Foksal Gallery Foundation", Warsaw; and is making new work for The Museum of Modern Art (Moma) in New York as part of their Projects’ Series in September 2009. "Cornerhouse", Manchester, presented the first major UK survey of Zmijewski's work, spanning his practice from 2003 to the present day, from November 2009 – January 2010. He was the curator of the 7th Berlin Biennale in 2012 – of which he opened the curatorial process as a collaboration.
Berek (The Game of Tag), 1999 has repeatedly brought controversy. The piece depicts nude adults playing tag in the gas chamber of the Stutthof concentration camp.
Contents
Notable works
Movies
Note: Titles in brackets are non-official English titles.
Ja i AIDS (Me and AIDS), 1996
Ogród botaniczny ZOO (ZOO, The Botanic Garden), 1997
Oko za Oko (An Eye for an Eye), 1998
Berek (The Game of Tag), 1999
KR WP, 2000
Sztuka kochania (An Art of Love), 2000
Karolina (Caroline), 2001
Na spacer (Out for a Walk), 2001
Lekcja śpiewu 1 (Singing Lesson 1), 2001
Lekcja śpiewu 2 (Singing Lesson 2), 2003
Pielgrzymka (Pilgrimage), 2003
Nasz śpiewnik (Our Songbook), 2003
Itzik, 2003
Lisa, 2003
80064, 2004
Rendez-vous, 2004
Powtórzenie (Repetition), 2005
Wybory.pl, 2005
Them, 2007
Democracies, 2009
Blindly, 2013 (Biennale di Venezia)
Realism, 2017
Compassion, 2022
Photographies
40 Szuflad (40 Drawers), 1995
Gestures, 2019
Refugees/Cardboards, 2022
Solo exhibitions
Tożsamość Dzidzi, 1995, Galeria Przyjaciół A.R., Warsaw, Poland
Śpiew sardynek, 1996, Galeria a.r.t., Płock, Poland
Oko za oko, 1998, Centrum Sztuki Współczesnej Zamek Ujazdowski, Warsaw, Poland
Ausgewahlte Arbeiten, 1999, Galeria Wyspa, Gdańsk, Poland
Berek, 2000, Galeria a.r.t., Płock, Poland
Na Spacer, 2001, Galeria Foksal, Warsaw, Poland
Lekcja śpiewu 1 / Lekcja śpiewu 2, 2003, Fundacja Galerii Foksal, Warsaw, Poland
Singing lesson 2, 2003, Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
Singing lesson, 2003, Wilkinson Gallery, London, Great Britain
Artur Żmijewski. Selected Works 1998–2003, 2004, MIT List Visual Arts Center, Boston, US
Artur Żmijewski, 2004, Centre d'art Contemporain de Bretigny, Brétigny-sur-Orge, France
Powtórzenie, 2005, Polski Pawilon na LI Międzynarodowym Biennale w Wenecji, Venice, Italy
Artur Żmijewski, 2005, Kunsthalle, Basel, Switzerland
Artur Żmijewski, 2009, Cornerhouse, Manchester, United Kingdom
Artur Żmijewski, 2010, Trade (gallery), Nottingham, United Kingdom
Group exhibitions
Documenta 2007, Kassel, Germany
Double Agent 2008, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, BALTIC, Gateshead, Warwick Arts Centre, Warwick
11th International Istanbul Biennial 2009, Istanbul